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The force has awoken: what we know about Star Wars Episode VII

A recap of what we (and others) know about the next Star Wars movie.

Back when I was a youngling, getting information about new Star Wars movies in the run-up to their release required networks of Bothan spies. Then the Internet became a thing, and everything changed. Those of you old enough to remember the pre-YouTube days of Internet video may well remember downloading the Episode I trailer from Apple. At the time I was in grad school and fortunate enough to benefit from Imperial College London’s rather fat pipes, yet it still took several hours. That all seems like it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, though.

Earlier this week, Lucasfilm and Disney used a Star Wars convention in Southern California to unleash a torrent of information about the next installment of the space opera franchise on the world. There was the new teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which at this point has racked up more than 36 million views on YouTube.

There was much to love in the new trailer. The crashed Imperial Star Destroyer and Super Star Destroyers on the surface of desert planet Jakku were particular favorites in the orbiting HQ’s editorial office, sparking a vigorous debate among a few of us about whether or not there was any sign of technological progress during the sixty-odd years that span the Star Wars cinematic universe. Another office favorite was an Interstellar/Star Wars mashup, showing Matthew McConaughey’s reaction to the trailer:

The trailer was announced during a panel discussion featuring the film’s director, J.J. Abrams, and some of the actors, including the newest droid called BB-8. Until now many had assumed the robot—which looks like an astromech’s head grafted onto a beachball—was a CGI creation. In fact, BB-8 is a physical creation built by Colorado-based droid startup Sphero (thanks to @freds4hb on Twitter for alerting me to BB-8's patent). Long-time Ars forum member river-wind also reminded us that Disney sci-fi movies have a history with round robots, suggesting that V.I.N.C.E.N.T from The Black Hole might be the droid’s ancestor.

The teaser’s debut was followed a day later with a trailer for a new Star Wars: Battlefront game. The game is scheduled to release in November for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, and it takes place during the original trilogy of films.

Needless to say, Ars hasn’t been the only place to get excited about the flood of Star Wars info. Over at Polygon, Ars-alum Ben Kuchera broke down his favorite moments gif-by-gif. The Guardian summarized the most outlandish rumors, including the return of both Darth Vader and Boba Fett (I remember this last one as being a popular myth in the junior school playground circa 1985 too).

io9 brought us some good intel, notably that the Rebellion is now called the Resistance, and the Empire is now known as The First Order (which makes sense given the film takes place 30 years after Emperor Palpatine got dropped into a hypermatter reactor on the second Death Star). We also saw a decent amount of Star Wars-related humor on Twitter as well a couple of favorites that focused on the bureaucratic side of things in the Rebel Alliance and the Empire.

Since there’s bound to be more that we haven’t touched on in this recap, please use the comments to alert us to your favorite findings.

Channel Ars Technica