What we learned from The Force Awaken’s behind-the-scenes teaser

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For those of us who didn’t get to be in Hall H and treated to a live concert, the behind-the-scenes video was the highlight of The Force Awakens panel in San Diego. So, naturally, we obsess. Yesterday I looked at the panel itself, but today is all about screencaps. Or, you should probably watch the video again…


I do read spoilers, but I am trying to keep them out of this. Still, enter at your own risk…

One thing I thought was neat was following the crashed TIE fighter from concept art, to model, to close up, to wide shot.

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What are you hiding, TIE fighter?


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Now this guy is interesting. A puppet controlled via motion capture?


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Is Finn the stormtrooper here? (Height is about right.) Poe Dameron, whose jacket is that? Cause it looks pretty familiar…

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But it’s not quite the jacket Oscar Isaac is wearing later on, either:

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Another interesting connection to the second trailer… Check out the tower in the far right:

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They don’t look exactly the same, but the shots do have very different angles, so it could be the same object.

More Poe, the blue X-wing, and Kylo. Very low in Kylo Ren, this video.

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And, yes, green screen.


Another very interesting shot:

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Why is Rey in the pilot’s seat wiith Chewbacca? We see a lot of the Falcon’s cockpit in the video, with both Han and Rey in the pilot’s seat, but this is the only time we see her in the cockpit with Chewbacca at all. And what is she wearing under that hoodie? (Space hoodie?) It looks darker than her usual outfit…

Also, the blue thing: Flux Capacitor?


Anyway…

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One of the five guys operating Bobbajo! Probably the most uncomfortable one.

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Simon Pegg is playing an alien. So much for my bet on droid. Unless he’s one of those, too.

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Yeah, red guy from one of the Vanity Fair pics, but what’s maybe more interesting is the sketches behind him.


Now, big mystery #1…

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Who are these cyclops-looking guys? That looks like a ship, but certainly not a First Order ship.

Look to earlier in the video, when the Chewbacca costume is being discussed:

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The guys in the video don’t move like droids, though, but I wonder if this is a sidekick of theirs. (I’ve darkened these a bit so you can also make out the Pigs-in-Space looking dude on the cardboard under the pit-droid head sketch. Also: Why the cupcake?)


Now, here’s something we actually have a pretty good guess at. Note the IMAX cameras…

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There’s only one IMAX scene in the movie, and that is pretty clearly the Falcon’s cockpit, not the gunner’s seat. So that would mean Rey is the one flying in the trailer.

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Presumably she knows that Star Destroyer a hell of a lot better than Han or Chewie would.

Man, that is going to make a hell of an addition to Star Tours.


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Is the forest castle Starkiller Base or Maz Kanata’s castle? Is the stuff on the ground supposed to be ash, dust, or snow? And what’s with the big X on the guy in the center left?

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Falconhedge! Also, let’s zoom in on the center:

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At least four ladies in that crowd, two in pilot gear.


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Threepio’s arm is indeed red. You win this round, Mexican soda can. Also, for all they pair this shot with Domhnall Gleeson in a very red command room of some sort…

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It’s pretty clearly the same place Oscar Isaac (and probably Leia) is.

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A pair of old friends…


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Warwick Davis and… Whatever that guy is. People have been referring to him as the ‘fluffy minion,’ FYI.


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Carrie/Leia again. I kind of feel we could hold a caption contest with these, but I doubt any of us will be able to match whatever Carrie is actually saying to Abrams.

Also, doesn’t that thing on the left look like an old-school Tardis console? Between that and the Flux Capacitor-looking thing, I feel like Abrams is letting his troll flag fly a bit.


And now, mystery #2:

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Germain Lussier at io9 thinks this may be Luke; Jeremy Conrad at Furious Fanboys (don’t click through that unless you want spoilers) think it’s the same sequence as the cyclops-looking guys as mystery #1. Sorry Germain, I’m with Jeremy on this.

Whatever is is, J.J. and Kathleen Kennedy are amused:

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And finally, the Falcon:

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Enjoy!

Trooper teatime

8 Replies to “What we learned from The Force Awaken’s behind-the-scenes teaser”

  1. For the first few viewings, I thought the prisoner in the prisoner/stormtrooper clip was Luke. The jacket and the floppy hair had me so convinced that I may have, erm, squeed a bit.

    1. Oh absolutely. Totally with you there!

      That brief moment of the scene really had a vibe of Luke’s ‘hand-himself-in (but not really hand-himself-in, ‘cos he’s a Jedi)’ style.

  2. RE: the Fluffy Minion: This creature design seems like a nod to Muffett, Boxey’s pet from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica.

  3. I’m generally avoiding spoilers and this article did a nice job of scrutinizing what Lucasfilm released at SDCC and not revealing a lot of the rumors. I definitely saw more after reading your rundown.

  4. Let’s hope that is the *only* thing that resembles that show. ::shudder::

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