It’s here!
Okay, now down to business.
Continue reading “Video: The Force Awakens trailer is here, and it’s amazing”
The Force Awakens tickets for opening night are on sale!
It may depend on your local theater, but tickets for many ‘midnight’ and weekend showings of The Force Awakens are now on sale. Both Fandango and MovieTickets.com have each crashed once tonight already, so we don’t know how they’ll handle the post-trailer rush.
UPDATE: HERE’S THE TRAILER! 12+ hours later, many tickets are sold out, but if you’re not in a huge city, be sure to check. They will sell out eventually!
But beforehand, even J.J. Abrams weighed in, with a note that builds off a bit of the day’s weirdness:
#TheForceAwakens #MNF pic.twitter.com/yw6XvlpJNe
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) October 20, 2015
The trailer is not on Monday Night Football to reach us
Scott Mendelson has some wisdom on why the big trailer debut tonight is happening during Monday Night Football – because it’s not just for us. Because, face it, we’re already hooked. They could drop this thing anywhere and we’d find it. They want – they need – to reach the people who haven’t been hanging on every piece of Star Wars news. We already know about the poster and teasers, but there are a lot of people out there who don’t. A lot of people who – despite liking Star Wars – maybe haven’t even seen both the previous trailers. They’re running the trailer during halftime of one of the most-watched events on TV to reach more than us.
Meanwhile, tickets are already on sale in the U.K., and they’re bringing down websites.
Since we’re talking about the trailer, here’s a reminder that I’ll be on The Trailer Council with several other fansite/podcasting people soon after the trailer drops.
It’s official: New poster launched, The Force Awakens trailer coming during Monday Night Football
Lucasfilm has finally confirmed that the rumors are true: The full-length trailer for The Force Awakens will debut during halftime on Monday night’s NFL game.
Tickets will go on sale “everywhere” following the trailer launch. Also confirmed is the Star Wars Marathon Event, aka the seven-movie marathon, at select theaters.
Lucasfilm says that Disney is “providing unprecedented company-wide on-air and social support” and “tying in events and special activities for the day of the trailer release.” Something – perhaps a trailer tease – is expected during Good Morning America tomorrow.
Or, they’ve already dropped one:
No, wait, three: One with Poe and Finn, and one with Rey and BB-8.
See the full poster beneath the cut, as well as a little minor theorizing.
Short blurbs, earlier release date for Journey to The Force Awakens short stories?
Florian was first to spot these small summaries for the four Journey to The Force Awakens stories by Landry Walker. Each has a price of $2.99 and release date of November 24 – a week earlier than the December 1 date given at NYCC. Delilah Dawson’s The Perfect Weapon, which doesn’t have a summary yet (it’s the only digital short from Del Rey instead of Disney Lucasfilm Press) also has an Amazon release date of the 24th at the moment, though it’s only priced at $1.99.
→ All Creatures Great and Small : “A storyteller uses his captivating skills to calm frightened villagers on Jakku.”
→ High Noon on Jakku: “A renegade droid causes problems for Constable Zuvio on Jakku.”
→ The Face of Evil: “A notorious thief learns to be careful what she wishes for on Takodana.”
The four Landry stories are expected to be released in print, along with two new entries, in the spring. A sixth story, ‘Bait’ by Alan Dean Foster, will appear in a December issue of the Star Wars Insider.
Netflix could get streaming rights to The Force Awakens
A couple years ago, Disney and Netflix signed an agreement that will bring their movies exclusively to Netflix Instant beginning in 2016. But because it opens in 2015, that means The Force Awakens falls under Disney’s previous deal with Starz. But could it come to Netflix instead – maybe along with the rest of the saga? That may be enough reason for Disney to negotiate it away from Starz, Screencrush reports.
Rumor: The Force Awakens trailer to debut during Monday Night Football?
I really didn’t want to keep chasing this dragon, but there have been several reports today that the new trailer for The Force Awakens is coming on Monday. That’s the 19th, a date which has been floating around for a while, mainly because that’s when the tickets go on sale, per many, many theaters.
First at bat this morning was Screencrush, later joined later by Making Star Wars, who added a key detail: Monday Night Football. (io9 pitched in on Thursday, saying we’ll see the poster Sunday morning.)
(Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican also hinted at Monday recently, and their own article plays it vague.)
Now, I really don’t like Monday for a trailer drop, tickets or no tickets. But when you add in Monday Night Football, (which airs on ESPN, which is owned by ABC) okay. Fine. I get it. I guess. You can’t really get more mainstream than Monday Night Football. (And hell, at least it isn’t Dancing With The Stars.)
Of course, if this does come to pass, we also expect the trailer to drop online immediately or very soon after it does on ESPN, so no one has to watch football. And it would also mean that it won’t come during the workday (for many of us) which is also nice.
But. Monday. Man.
Regardless of when and where the trailer actually happens, we are hoping for at least some official forewarning, and maybe even a significant news drop from Lucasfilm within the next few days, once the Rebels premiere gets out of the way. I’m hoping for a poster – it’s noteworthy that the MSW post also hints at a new logo. Still, all they really have to do is tell us about MNF, the marathon and tickets going on sale to get headlines through Sunday.
But for now, we wait. At least John Boyega has our back:
So connected with JJ and told him to hurry up with a trailer. Fingers crossed! That's all I can do. #injjwetrust
— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) October 14, 2015
UPDATE: Reddit user ‘DatESPNGUY’ (via) claims this is how it’ll go down:
This Monday Disney is releasing the full trailer for The Force Awakens after the first quarter of your game. The whole night from graphics and scoreboard are Star Wars themed. The intro to the game gets an opening crawl detailing your hated rivalry.
Seriously it’s the coolest thing Monday Night Football has ever done.
Oh and one more thing.
The trailer will play on the screen at Lincoln Financial so that those in attendance don’t miss out!
Rumors: Rating and runtime for The Force Awakens?
We’re seeing some signs of The Force Awakens rating and runtime. Nothing is really official yet, and there are some inconsistencies, but such is the nature of internet gossip.
Following the Nerd claims they have UK details for the film, which is to-be-announced at 12A, or their equivalent to PG-13. On that note, Yakface spotted that the film is listed as PG-13 on the AMC theaters app.
Whether this is likely or they’re just using the Revenge of the Sith rating as a placeholder… We don’t know. It does seem unlikely we’ll get anything gruesome as crispy Anakin this early in the trilogy, but who knows?
Perhaps more believably, the FTN report claims the film is 136 minutes, which puts it on the long side for a Star Wars movie (only Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are longer, if not by much) but not particularly long for huge blockbusters in general these days.
(AMC is also listing a Star Wars marathon for December 17, something we’ve heard rumblings of before.)
In other theater-based news, it seems like The Force Awakens may be playing at both Disney’s El Capitan Theatre and the Chinese Theatre across the street in Hollywood.
MSW: Early buzz on The Force Awakens is very good
Jason at Making Star Wars today says that the early buzz he’s heard on The Force Awakens has been very positive, from production to people who’ve actually seen the film in some form. Now, I would still be cautious, but it’s a good sign.
Spoilerphobes beware: Rey and Kylo Ren’s background?
A user on Reddit (aka automatic red flag, the website) claims to know some background information on Rey, Kylo Ren and a few other characters from The Force Awakens. S/he’s implying it’s from the novelization, and it’s a burner account, so who knows if any of this has actual merit. Take it as you will. (via)
Even they say that Snoke isn’t Plagueis, though.