We highly recommend not watching the above video if you want to avoid spoilers.
Who needs an Advent calendar when you have daily reminders that Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes out in a week’s time? Not only are little tidbits, new interviews with the cast, and think pieces (some written by me) filling news and media feeds, but other we’ve been getting to see more and more of the movie that, up until about 3 months ago, had almost nothing in the way of clips or even shots for us to cling onto. Not so anymore! A new trailer for the movie aimed at the Chinese market appeared online today, and it’s got even more bits and bobs for us to salivate over for the next week.
While under two minutes in length, the trailer features new shots and scenes we haven’t yet seen in any previously released footage. It should be noted that the Chinese market is much less concerned with plot spoilers than we are in the West, and they know how to market their movies to ensure people go see them: by showing tons of cool things!
A lot of the beginning is stuff we’ve already seen, but we get a bit more of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)’s vow to Darth Vader’s effed-up helmet. We also get to hear Rey (Daisy Ridley) say, after BB-8 apparently communicates that its identity is a secret, “Classified, really? Me too.” We get to see Han Solo (Harrison Ford) piloting the Millennium Falcon again, which gave my heart an extra jolt, and we get to see what looks like Starkiller Base revving up its horrifying new weapon.
We also get tons of fighting. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) leads his group of X-Wings into battle a number of times and it’s cut to look like Finn (John Boyega) inside the Falcon is helping with this aerial siege. But perhaps the coolest moment (aside from Poe yelling “We’ve got a lot of company!”) is Finn blazing up the blue lightsaber to fight a First Order stormtrooper brandishing what looks like it could be a version of the vibroblade several characters in the saga have used to fight those with lightsabers. So maybe when he faces Ren, that’s NOT the first time he’s used it. Pretty exciting, at any rate.
As much as I don’t like knowing too much about movies before I see them, this one still feels like a mystery despite all these new shots. Man, time to watch these 111 seconds on repeat for the next few days.
Let me know your favorite moments in the Chinese trailer in the comments below!
—
Image: Lucasfilm/Disney
Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!