The seventh installment to the Star Wars saga will be hitting theaters worldwide on December 18, 2015.
Officially titled “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” it will be the first Star Wars movie that will be under Disney following Disney’s acquisition of Lucas Films in 2012 that saw George Lucas getting richer by a cool $4 billion.
Two weeks ago, Disney released the official trailer of “Star Wars 7” whetting fans appetite and excitement for the movie.
As it turned out, the trailer was 88 seconds long featuring flashing images of the main characters backed by the Force theme played on woodwind instruments.
Subsequently, the music heightened up as a full orchestra joins the original instrument and builds towards a soft female voice. It ended with the familiar yellow Star Wars logo and the new film’s title, followed by a flash of the Millennium Falcon, firing its weapons, flying straight at the camera.
A sinister disembodied voice wraps up the trailer with the words: “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side and the light.”
The Millennium Falcon up close
Speaking of the Millennium Falcon, the iconic space craft was featured in the latest issue of Fortune magazine.
Regarded once as the ‘fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy,’ the space craft was shown in the magazine cover behind Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Entertainment Weekly revealed that the image was actually re-touched as Iger’s photo was taken in New York while the Millennium Falcon’s picture was shot at the Pinewoods Studio in Buckinghamshire in England.
Thanks to the creative crew of Industrial Light and Magic, the final picture came out as if Iger was indeed just standing in front of the Millennium Falcon.
As recalled by the Daily Mail, the Millennium Falcon first appeared in “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” which is actually the very first Star Wars film shown in 1977, where it was piloted then by Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Return of the film’s original cast
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” shall also mark the return to the big screen of the original cast members of the first Star Wars film, led by Harrison Ford as Hans Solo, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.
The three original cast members were in the film’s Episode IV to VI, the last of which, “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,” was shown in 1983.
From 1983 to 2014, that’s a period of 31 years. Obviously the ages of the original cast members have caught up with them by this time. But leave it to Disney to make them look as if the original cast members came from a shoot just several months ago.
Other cast members include Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Andy Serkis, who delivered that sinister voice towards the end of the trailer, Domhnall Gleeson, Max Von Sydow, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Pip Anderson, Christina Chong, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Kenny Baker as R2-D2.