By Nico Espinola Posted December 16, 2015
Ten years after the release of “Revenge of the Sith”, the much anticipated and newest installment of the Star Wars saga, “The Force Awakens”, premieres Friday, December 18.
The release of the official trailer has fans all over the world excited for Episode VII. The two-and-one-half-minute trailer featured brief scenes with many characters both new and old. One well-known character who has yet to make an appearance in any trailer is Luke Skywalker. With little information known about him, fans are left wondering what kind of role he will have in “The Force Awakens”.
The film is set to take place thirty years after “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. At this point, little information is known about the plot. There will be two main groups, The Resistance and the First Order. The film will have many new characters such as the new villain Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver, or the new hero Finn and Rey, played by John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. It will also have plenty of returning characters from the original films such as Chewbacca, played by Peter Mayhew, Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, and Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher.
The Resistance is the group that took over after the Rebel Alliance that everyone knows from the previous Star Wars films. The Resistance shows similarities with the Rebel Alliance such as how they both are led by characters such as Han Solo and Princess Leia. The First Order is the group that takes over after the Empire. They still use stormtroopers and TIE fighters like the Empire did. Now that Darth Vader and the Emperor, the leaders of the Empire, have been killed, Supreme Leader Snoke, new villain Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma are here to finish what they started. But because little information has been released, what happened to the Empire and Rebel Alliance is still unknown.
“The Force Awakens” will be the first movie in a new “Sequel Trilogy”, to be released every other year, which was announced after Disney purchased Lucasfilm for about $4 billion in 2012. One reason the film is expected to do well is that Disney is using models and real effects, as was done for the original trilogy; rather than using mostly CGI, as was done for the prequel trilogy which was disappointing to many. On the first day of ticket sales, Fandango had already sold eight times as many tickets than the previous record holder for first-day ticket sales showing fans’ high anticipation and excitement for “The Force Awakens”.
