Squeaky Mouse Droid: The Jundland Wastes – Part 2
For the first part of this column, in which the Squeaky Mouse Droid first ventures into the land of speculation and rumor about the all things Lucasfilm is planning for Star Wars under the Disney banner, click here.
“Always in motion the future is.” – Yoda
After traipsing through the Jundland wastes for some time, we are about to see a major reprieve from all the heat and ambiguity. To this point, we have merely been speculating about the new course the Star Wars franchise will take. That speculation will be replaced with… knowledge!
In less than two weeks, Lucasfilm will be holding a panel at San Diego Comic Con. Let the Wookiee win if you don’t think that they are going to show us some new footage, likely in the form of a new trailer.
With two teaser trailers already shown for The Force Awakens – the first, an 88-second taste of what J.J Abrams was working on – and the second, a little of nostalgia mixed with some vivid images of what the Star Wars galaxy will be like 30 years after Return of the Jedi – and, yet still very little that was shown that would tell us what the actual story (things like the basic plot or the motivations of the film’s characters) were all left out.
Sure, there are countless blogs and a number of videos that have pieced together what may in fact be the basic plot-line of the film, and some have used leaked photos to help support there assertions or complete the story.
Some fans say that that the marketing for the film thus far has been fantastic, firstly, because JJ likes a bit of mystery and a good amount of guessing to help market his films. Secondly is the fact that even the most eager fans want there to be a few surprises left when they enter the cinema to see the film in December. “Leave it at two teasers” they might say, and they’d have good reasons, reasons which are already evident.
Not a change. While not every big film has two teaser trailers as this one does, they do have the classic “theatrical” trailer, what might be called the “story trailer.” These trailers are marketed to the everyone, not just the geek or fan communities, and serve to give the general public an idea of what the story is. Despite how vocal the geek and fan communities are, if they alone were the only ones buying tickets to a film like this, it wouldn’t generate the mind of numbers that are needed to secure the future of the franchise. While that assertion I’ve just made might be questionable with a film that has the words Star Wars (and I’d still argue that I’m right, as Lucasfilm still has to convert anyone who has been unable to dispel the bad taste the prequels left in their mouths) the powers that be still assume that people want to know something about the story so that they’d figure out if it’s something they’d plunk down their hard-earned cash for. Rest assured, the next trailer will be that “story trailer,” and it looks like it should drop in two weeks.
And it is then that it will feel like we’ve left the Jundland Wastes of pieced together speculation, at least with regards to The Force Awakens. Furthermore, with a few more solid details about The Force Awakens for us to look at, there will be something more to go on for those bloggers and video-philes that want to think about Episode 8, or even Episode 9.
In short, a new “story trailer” will give us a lot to go on. For the first time, we’ll get an idea of how all of these characters and plots will fit together. We might even get some more dialogue from the original cast. After all, Han Solo’s “Chewie, we’re home” and Chewie’s accompanying growl of acknowledgement are the only bits of new dialogue we’ve had from any of the classic characters – and we’ve heard no new dialogue form the new characters.
Yes, Luke’s narration in the second teaser doesn’t quite count as new dialogue. All of the lines were spoken by the character in Return of the Jedi, and one (“You have that power, too”) was taken deliberately out of order in as a means of making the suggestion that one of our new characters might also continue the legacy in some way.
Truth be told, it’s been a pretty busy last couple of weeks as the mouse droid rolled slowly along through these Jundland Wastes,: rumors and speculation, along with potential casting reveals all made for an interesting journey. There were even a couple of leaked photos from the new film, which you can see below.
Stay tuned folks, in less then two weeks, there will be a lot to talk about with regard to The Force Awakens. We’ve left the Jundland Wastes of idle guesswork.
Now all the click-bait can seem more “genuine.”
