The second teaser of the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released at the 2015 Star Wars Celebration at the Anaheim Convention Center on April 16. For some Star Wars fans, the 88-seconds was enough time to determine that the film directed by Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is going to flop.

However, Star Wars fanatic or not, no one has the ability to determine whether a movie is going to be good or bad based on 179-seconds of footage.

Those with The Force fever should not be so quick to destine the newest addition to the Star Wars saga to box office doom. Instead, faithful fans should trust that Abrams and Disney will bring energy to revive the saga when the film hits theaters in  December.

George Lucas, the founder of Lucasfilm, trusted The Walt Disney Company to continue Star Wars’ success when he handed over his successful film production company to Disney for $4.05 million in October 2012, according to an article on BusinessInsider.com.

Although many people think that Disney will ruin the legacy of Lucas’ films, Tim Hengst, a multimedia professor at California Lutheran University, said he thinks Disney will be able to reflect the same kind of energy and excitement the original trilogy had into “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

“Disney is one of the leaders in storytelling throughout the whole era of movies,” Hengst said. “Disney’s ability to tell a compelling story to capture the audience and bring the audience into the movie itself has been amazing.”

Disney and Abrams’ marketing strategy for the two trailers is genius because they are not only attracting a new generation of fans but also bringing back the audience of the original trilogy. Many people were turned off by prequels that could have and should have been better than they were.

Instead, Abrams is focusing on building a bridge that connects the successful original trilogy to “Star Wars:The Force Awakens” that crosses right over the disastrous prequels.

Throughout the second trailer Star Wars fans are filled with nostalgia when they hear Luke Skywalker’s voice describe the strength of The Force in his family.

Fans reminisce of the original trilogy when they see a glimpse of the Star Destroyer crashed in the desert, Darth Vader’s mask crumbling to pieces and the very first lightsaber audiences saw in 1977 when episode four was released.

Senior Nicholas Dowell said these scenes in the trailers showed the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” potential and sparked his interest to go see the film when it is released in December.

“Vader’s helmet and the original lightsaber are symbolic. That’s trying to excite people and connect to the people who are more into the original trilogy,” Dowell said. “They are trying to gather them as an audience too because a lot of people were against the prequels that were newer.”

Senior Dylan Daw said he agreed that including familiar faces for the cast such as Harrison Ford as Han Solo and the roaring sound of Chewbacca boosts the films appeal to a larger audience of Star Wars fans.

“Tying in elements and cast members of the original movies and putting them in the trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ takes away from the other prequels. It doesn’t look so much like the prequels and it just connects to the older, more awesome Star Wars movies,” Daw said.

Even though “Star Wars:The Force Awakens” will be released in less than eight months and Star Wars fans have been blessed with the opportunity to witness 179 total seconds of the new film, it is too soon to tell whether or not “Star Wars:The Force Awakens” will be successful at the box office.

However, based on the few glimpses fans have seen thus far, creating the connection to the original trilogy is a strong tactic pushing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to success.

Brooke Straeter
Staff Writer
Published April 29th, 2015