The theatrical trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the most anticipated movie this side of Hoth, just debuted during an American football game on ESPN Monday (Oct. 19) night.
ESPN just happens to be owned by Disney, which bought Lucasfilm—the film company behind Star Wars—in 2012. That’s media brand synergy at its finest.
The trailer shows many of the original series’ main characters, including Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca, as well as a new cast of characters who will likely be the driving force of the new film. Interestingly, Luke Skywalker, the original series’ protagonist seems to have been absent from the trailer, and the official movie poster released yesterday—unless he wasn’t. Perhaps he’s being set up for a more ghostly cameo.
The next episode of Star Wars is hitting cinemas Dec. 15 in the UK, and various countries, including the US, over the following few days.
Disney also announced that US fans could preorder tickets for The Force Awakens around the same time the trailer aired, but it appears that many people had trouble securing their seats for opening night. Perhaps they shouldn’t have switched off their targeting computers.
In case the new trailer wasn’t enough, here are the original two teaser trailers again: