J.J. Abrams says not to expect any more The Force Awakens trailers
After receiving 112 million views in 24 hours, the latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer (watch here) nearly broke the internet with nerd fervor, but don’t expect that enthusiasm to translate to much more new footage. Director/co-writer J.J. Abrams spoke to Extras and revealed that is more-or-less it as far as new footage is concerned before the monumentally-anticipated film itself drops on December 18.
“We’re getting very close, the next thing’s really gonna be the movie,” Abrams confirmed. “There will be commercials, but no more trailers… We’ve all been working really hard to give people something that will be special to them. Our fingers are just very tightly crossed that when people see the movie they’ll like it.”
The master of the mystery box also discussed the rumors that have cropped up that Mark Hamill’s iconic Luke Skywalker character will turn to the dark side in the movie. This idea has popped up in the wake of Skywalker being mostly absent from marketing materials so far, which Abrams has recently stated was “no accident.”
“I saw that too, I’m always interested in seeing people’s theories,” Abrams said cryptically. “What’ll be cool when people finally see the movie and see what it really is. Hopefully some people will say, ‘I was right,’ other people will be like, ‘All right! You want people to be debating things even before the movie comes out, it’s a dream!'”
Of course, the real reason Luke may be missing is that the story of Episode VII is widely rumored to center around the search for Luke Skywalker itself, so revealing him so early would spoil the elation of his ultimate discovery. As it is, Hamill is confirmed to have shot scenes with Daisy Ridley at Ireland’s Skellig Michael island for both The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII, so unless he’s held her captive in a Sith torture dungeon between the two films, all this talk of Dark Side Luke may be just hot air.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and features a new generation of swashbuckling heroes and shadowy villains, as well as the return of fan-favorite smugglers, princesses, and Jedi.
Starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Anderson, Christina Chong and Miltos Yerolemou, the J.J. Abrams-directed film will debut in theaters on December 18, 2015.