Star Wars 7: Here’s Why J.J. Abrams Says We Haven’t Seen More Footage
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That Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer pretty damn awesome. Even months later I still watch it at least once every other day or so. But while it introduces us to most of the key new additions to that far, far away galaxy, it’s noticeably light on familiar faces. That, of course, was a very conscious choice, and J.J. Abrams admits that there has been a great deal of back and forth as he and Lucasfilm try to decide what to show, what to leave out, and how to best market their film.
My vote for how they should promote this is have a TV spot where Abrams just shrugs and says, “Hey, we made a new Star Wars movie.” I think that would be just as effective as anything else. We’re all going go see this regardless of what the trailers look like, even those of us who aren’t stoked for this at all. They could go completely dark if they wanted and still smash the box office, but while they’re going to show more, they’re going to be very judicious about what they reveal. At a recent event, Abrams said:
We’re just trying to make sure it’s as good as it could be before we put anything out. The disaster would be to race something out for the sake of making an impact and it being not as good as people deserve. … We don’t want to be coy but we have almost a year until the movie comes out, so we have to be smart about what we say and when. We’re always having conversations about it.
When the first trailer came out, there were reports that Abrams didn’t want to release it and that it was more a Disney move than a Abrams move. After all, this is the guy who insisted up until the day the movie opened that Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. If he could get away with doing no promotion, he probably would.
Especially in this instance, most of us will be plenty happy with a less-is-more approach. There are enough rumors and reports and potential spoilers floating around out there to keep up occupied, just give us a couple snippets of new footage now and again, and we’ll be satisfied. Back in January we heard that a new trailer for The Force Awakens will be attached to Avengers: Age of Ultron—reportedly one with our first looks at Luke, Leia, and Han—so we have that to look forward to.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens worldwide December 18.
