So if the Tatooine girl is the strong-with-the-force protege, they’re not going with Skywalker kids, or at least not at first? I figured the story would be about Skywalker kids. I guess the girl could be a cousin.
I confess I got chills when the Millennium Falcon appeared. Abrams worries me a bit, though. I’ve found his previous films to be a mixed bag.
Holy crap. An African Imperial imperial stormtrooper!
So, Stormtroopers are still around?
That would probably be a pretty good movie compared to what we’ll actually get.
Their armor is, at least.
OK, I watched the trailer, here are my thoughts.
First, the trailer doesn’t show us much. Looks fine as far as it goes. I thought the shot of the Millennium Falcon going upside down was nice. Whole thing has that glossy CGI/Abrams-y look to it, which is not my favorite, but oh well.
But I would say that there is no way this is going to be a good movie. At best, it could be a decent movie on its own terms, but it can’t be a good continuation of the original Star Wars trilogy.
Here’s my reasoning. The trailer says in a cheesy overly dramatic voice, “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it? The Dark Side… and the Light.”
This is ridiculous insofar as continuity with the original trilogy is concerned, inasmuch as the Emperor, Darth Vader, Yoda, and Luke Skywalker were extremely powerful Force users. Then, according to the prequels, Darth Vader was supposed to bring balance to the Force, which he did by killing the Emperor.
So WTF is any type of “awakening” supposed to be?
Sounds to me like a very artificial raising of stakes. They introduce a new villain and say, “You thought ol’ Palpatine was a badass? You ain’t seen nothing yet–this shit’s awakened now!” Mmm hmm…
The extended universe, which has now apparently been tossed in the trash, dealt with the fact that the Emperor and Luke were so badass in the Force by simply continuing to use them. The Emperor had clones made, and Luke fought them, eventually submitting to the Dark Side and becoming the Emperor’s apprentice for a time. The more than a whiff of the stupid and anticlimactic in this timeline as well, but it actually gets better with the kids of Han and Leia going on to do some pretty cool stuff.
I don’t think Abrams has the stuff to pull this off, and I think we’re going to get Episode VII: The Wrath of Khan Um Wait Darkness Somethingorother SITH! Luke Leia Etc.
I just hope Lawrence Kasdan saves this thing with a quality script.
I have faith that Abrams can make the best script in the world a horrible, lens-flared mess.
Honestly, I never noticed the lens-flares until people on the internet pointed it out.
Or maybe thousands of new Force users will suddenly appear, like Season 3 of Korra. Or maybe a whole new Force-powered species or empire will appear. Or maybe the Force will change, mutate, and start giving people completely different powers. Or maybe some sort of anti-Force will awaken, forcing the Light and Dark Side to join up. It could be anything. We just don’t know yet.
Lucas is gone; the old rules and constraints are gone with him. Anything can happen now.
A reawakening of the Force makes perfect sense to me. Most Force users have been wiped out. Balance, schmalance. All that Force energy is bound to build up and start manifesting both its dark and light sides.
She might be Han and Leia’s daughter or a descendant of Obi-Wan.
It has been estimated that 40% of an Abrams movie is lens flare.
And Disney and Abrams are here, bringing new ones with them.
It seems pretty arrogant to me to just toss the Extended Universe like so much trash. Now, I will grant you that, if some really talented people (like Kasdan… not Abrams) get really inspired and are free to execute their vision, they could make something really great. They could, in effect, use the Star Wars universe as stem cells and grow something that is even better than the original trilogy. Something exciting, sophisticated, deep.
Sadly, I think that’s unlikely. They are going to trash the Extended Universe and give us a superficial story with a coating of CGI.
It looks close enough to a Star Wars feel for me to be excited. I bought tickets just to see episode I teaser trailer and - well don’t remember feeling very encouraged by it.
I know everyone hated the prequels – I liked them - I even loved Jar Jar (ok - just kidding about that).
I will be there at midnight ~ 54 weeks from now
They can still be inspired by the EU, they’re just not saddled with a zillion plotholes the EU nitpickers would immediately swamp the internets with.
Plus, the movie gets to be new for everybody, including the EU elitist snobs. 
Disney will be hawking Sith Atrocity Play-sets to little girls within a year.
It will be Pink.
It will be Pink…
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I don’t care about the “Extended Universe” and am glad they felt no obligation to honor it.
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AWESOME
Wow, you’re basing such a strong opinion on a 2.5 minute trailer?
I think it looked great, had great sound, and showed Strom Troopers.
I’m hopefully expecting the same fun, enveloping movie experience we got with the first Star Wars. Anything else is just icing on the cake.
The Extended Universe wasn’t “tossed in the trash” – it’s just that… another Universe. We tell the King Arthur story, or the Batman story, or dozens of others, in many different ways and many different universes… I see no reason why Star Wars (or Star Trek, or Game of Thrones, etc.) has to only have one “legitimate” canonical Universe. They’re all legitimate, and all canonical, in my view – they just don’t all happen in the same universe.
I absolutely loved the sounds in the new trailer! That alone give me hope.