Rumor/Speculation: Could There be More Than One “The Force Awakens” Teaser Trailers?
“Your focus determines your reality,” were the sagely words of advice that Qui-Gon Jinn gave to a young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, words apparently every single Star Wars fan on the planet has taken to heart as we collectively focus our attention on the mystery of The Force Awakens teaser trailer. Or is it trailerS with an “S”??? Find out after the break.
NOTE: This article was written 2 days ago, before the official announcement from yesterday, and since edited for updated information.
Now that it has been CONFIRMED that 30 US theaters are exclusively showing the trailer this coming weekend we have to look at the bigger picture. Slash Film, a notoriously reliable source, claims there is “a bigger plan.” We’ve already heard at least several Episode VII teaser descriptions that all sounded different to a certain extent. What if one of the reasons for this seeming miscommunication is because there are going to be not one, but two trailers released? I can hear the frenetic brainsplosions of the collective Star Wars community the world over. Two trailers?! That’s what we’re now hearing. Two teaser trailers to be released in a variety of ways. PLEASE keep in mind Yoda’s wise words, “Always in motion the future is.”
First of all, in the last couple of days I was talking with our friend and Bothan informer who goes by “Kyle” in The Cantina boards. On several occasions in the past Kyle’s shared some really interesting rumors coming from his sources from the production. We were discussing the release date possibilities (for some time now he has been saying Thanksgiving Day) and Kyle said something very interesting that he had recently heard. Here are some quotes from our conversations. I’m very far from saying that everything is 100% legit but I think there is some truth in it. Take is as you like, nevertheless it’s an interesting read:
Kyle was actually one of the first who said that according to his sources The Force Awakens teaser is coming this month. He said this 3 days before we ran our article about The Hobbit. Here’s what he said on November 16:
According to one source, the trailer is either going to hit online Thanksgiving Day or the day after. They said, more speculated, that the trailers could be variants. The online trailer might be shorter than the theatrical one.
Probably a minute long teaser will be released online, and a longer one, which clocks in around a 100 sec. (now we know it’s 88 seconds) will be released in theaters first and then online. He/she has seen the 60 second trailer, but the extended one is a mystery. Has not heard John Williams newly recorded music. There were OT tracks used as filler for what he/she saw. They said it was a montage of all the characters, like a cross between the Empire strikes back teaser and the phantom menace teaser. They said nothing about who was included/excluded from the teaser, aside from Yoda (force ghost Yoda will not be in the teaser).
For our international friends and family who may not be fully aware, Thanksgiving is a very big holiday in the United States, officially kicks-off the holiday trifecta of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, which, ironically, also happens to be a very television-centric day as annual parades are aired in the morning with a whole slate of NFL football games, three of them in fact, nationally televised all day long on CBS, FOX and NBC. So this rumor slash speculation has a very plausible air of credibility to it as dropping a teaser trailer the magnitude of Star Wars: The Force Awakens would reach millions upon millions of viewers while simultaneously associating Star Wars with the holiday season. It makes a ton of sense from a marketing standpoint.
A day before the official trailer announcement Kyle told me what one of his sources saw in the trailer (the trailer appeared to be unfinished):
Lucasfilm logo only, which I thought was cool. All major characters sans Oscar Isaac and Lupita, who we all assume are playing major characters. No lightsabers except for the baddie, who is Driver under a mask.
Mostly focused on Ridley. My specific question about Luke, Leia and Han was only answered with “They’re all there”.
No dialogue, but the person said there was a period of black screen where a “wake up” line would fit very well as some other rumors suggested. The person said the audio was very cut and paste, and what they were seeing was not the finished product.
He said there is one more surprise to be had, but that he would not let me spoil it. He didn’t hint at anything, other than to stay close to my laptop on Thanksgiving day, and that he wouldn’t be surprised if it popped up out of nowhere on a football game or something on television. He said it sounds like the approach is to just throw it out there and get the frenzy started.
So to sum-up: We’re now hearing that there are two different versions of the teaser trailer. The first, the shorter version, is to air on TV likely on Thanksgiving Day to be followed-up by an online release.
Then as we all now know for sure this would be followed-up with the theatrical release of the 88 second teaser trailer in theaters on Friday and Saturday. It might make some sense to draw fans to the theaters to see the slightly longer version on the big screen. Only time will tell — just a few short days really — before we see if the magical mystery box has something truly huge for us in store. Also, don’t forget that Bad Robot stoked the fires of speculation themselves with the following Tweet captioned “THANKSGIVING”:
THANKSGIVING pic.twitter.com/46811BgWiF
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) November 24, 2014
Admittedly we were very hesitant to post this article. However, we here at StarWars7News are well aware that fans are not pleased with the exclusivity of the limited number of theaters showing the teaser trailer. This seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom in two distinct ways. First, it limits exposure to the product which is the opposite intent of marketing. I mean, people still remember the term “viral marketing”, yeah? And second, this exclusivity pisses off the hardcore fanbase which Disney must always rely on to generate the excitement for the casual fans and movie-goers. Both facets are counter-intuitive to marketing. So we must ask ourselves why? Why the caption “Thanksgiving” if the teaser is to be released on “Black Friday” which has evolved into its own thing? Also, we know that Disney/LFL/Bad Robot don’t always reveal all their cards at once — part of the mystery box strategy — as we saw with the Official Casting Announcement. People were very quick to criticize the production as being sexist, when it wasn’t. They just didn’t reveal everything. Hence, we could be set up now for a rather large surprise if not for Bloggers such as ourselves speculating upon such things.
Finally, recall that we reported about a potential clue posing as an Easter Egg in the recent Rebels episode “Empire Day.” The clue suggested a date — 11/27/13 to be precise. We looked back to see a comic book that eerily echoed rumors that we’ve been hearing about elements from Episode VII. However, if we look forward to that date we find that 11/27 is this Thursday — Thanksgiving Day. Hmmm . . . very curious.
As always take this with the usual amount of salt and let us all be patient. Thanksgiving is just in 2 days time. Very exciting times so stay tuned!
UPDATE!
Another possible hint for the Thanksgiving release of TFA trailer:
I wonder if the Jurassic World trailer got moved up to get out of something else’s way…
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) November 25, 2014
As you probably know the initial plan was the Jurassic Park trailer to be released on Thanksgiving Day. Today the trailer was unexpectedly posted online. So what are they afraid of? I think we all know the answer.
And one final note. When a bootleg version of The Age of Ultron trailer leaked online, in matter of hours Disney reacted and released the trailer officially online. So if they don’t release the trailer on Thursday as we expect they will surely do so on Friday morning when the first TFA bootleg trailer hits the web. 🙂
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Obviously the relevant quote here is: “THERE IS ANOTHER!”
Always two there are. A master and an apprentice.
weak man, weak..
Dang Viral,
I don’t even know what to say… Two trailers. I suppose one would just be an edited version of the first. That would still be pretty cool.
Oh and also.. would it be possible for us to use our Cantina log in info for the comments section of the blog? Seems like a more uniform way to do this.
Still this is just a rumor/speculation so far. Don’t get your hopes too high.
About the Cantina account – yes I already ordered that to a php developer. I hope we can use this function next year.
Urrggh. The anticipation is KILLING ME.
“My specific question about Luke, Leia and Han was only answered with “They’re all there”.”
SWEET HOLY FREAKING MELONS
This anticipation made me awaken the force all over the place… Can someone please pass me a trailer or two to clean it up?
I’m buying the idea the Jurassic World trailer was moved up to get out of Star Wars’ way. Knowing if they both released the same day, nobody would be talking about Jurassic World. if you are Universal you kind of have to be disappointed with how Star Wars is rolling out. They create a teaser for their trailer, announce a release date and then Disney comes in and announces a trailer for the same weekend.
When was the Jurassic World trailer supposed to go online?
….”As you probably know the initial plan was the Jurassic Park trailer to be released on Thanksgiving Day…..
and that’s thursday? Sorry I’m from the UK. Plus I thought the trailer was going to be released on friday but alright lol
By the way I wrote ‘but’, I have no idea why it came up as ‘ *%! ‘ haha
please don’t say ‘but’
Buttocks? Say it the gentleman’s way good sir…or madam
Yes, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Everyone will be home eating and watching American football OR a lot of people go see a movie. Perfect day to release the trailer.
Also, Jurassic World is being produced by Frank Marshall who is the longtime hubby of Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy so it’s most likely they are in cahoots since the bottom line meets both of their best interests… It’s also a hell of a way out of getting an anniversary gift!
Off topic.
Jurassic World a reboot or sequel?
Sequel
Sequel.
Sequel acting like a reboot. The “Park” is just too classic to reboot. No different than what the 007 camp did to “reboot” their franchise by trying to be more like their action contemporaries (i.e. Jason Bourne). I will say that I wish they went another way with the spherical, hamster looking thing – it’s too close to the Mr. Garrison made (South Park) vehicle… JUST SAYIN.
Appreciate the answers. Was a bit confused when watching.
Star Wars fans are like family. They’re the very best!!
Is that dude who played the adult ‘Damien’ gonna be in it? Sam Neil?
Friendly raptors! I’m going to watch it just for that, Jurassic world should certainly be very interesting, also the fact that Mr Star lord is in it
Now, when only one trailer is released, some people will be disappointed. Nice job.
Also, Jurassic World is terrified of TFA. I’m almost positive that’s why they released their trailer earlier than their countdown.
Why would be anybody dissapointed if there’s only one trailer, when the second one is shorter? On the contrary it it’s true more fanboys will be pissed off. We around the globe were hoping that even we are not the exclusive chosen ones, we still could see the trailer online. Now if Disney show us the finger with an Fuck you, loosers, not only you are far from the chosen theathre, you can forget the extra 28 seconds – you’ll do just fine with 1 minute. 🙂
C’mon Disney…you have to release this online…where we can watch it over and over and over.
This makes a lot of sense.
Online and/or television teaser followed by an extended version of the teaser exclusive to theaters.
A week from now we’ll have seen it all!
We will have picked it clean, like a Thanksgiving turkey. I can’t wait to examine every frame of this trailer for clues. I imagine I’ll feel like a kid again with the amount of excitement it will generate. In 83 a friend of mine got a ROJ t-shirt before the movie had been released and it had a picture of two scout troopers on speeder bikes. We spent the day speculating what they might be up to and how they’d use those bikes. Can’t wait for that feeling again.
Cool article VH! Can’t wait 4 “Turkey Day” now…….
Disappointed with starwars7news – you guys have a responsibility not only for Star Wars fans but fans who can’t geographically get to see this teaser. Not one disgruntled article about the lack of a European/Worldwide release. You guys have the might/readerbase/contacts to spearhead something here and fight for a good cause… are you guys going to roll over that easily?
Relax. They simply cannot show this teaser in selected theatres WORLDWIDE, and even so, people will still be in positions where they are unable to get to theatres. It’s not realistic. It would only be wrong for Disney/Lucasfilm for them to not put it online.
Selected selected selected……..they should learn how others release teasers in theathers worldwide,as seen every week in theathers around the globe
they will roll over ‘as easily ‘as Lando did when Vader landed on Cloud City
If you’re asking us to distribute the trailer, we’ll gladly post a link to it once it makes its way online (and there’s no reason to believe it won’t pop up shortly after it debuts on whatever platform it’s going to air on). But this site isn’t really about complaining.
If this text is some kind of censor, it’s having technical difficulties – my post didn’t have any profanity whatsoever in it.
Stop your whinging. You get free health care and real football.
Maybe the connection of Lucasfilm and Spielberg would explain why jurassic Parks trailer got released early. I know it’s probably far-fetched but maybe the word got out between the two companies on what was coming on Thursday.
Even closer connection… Frank Marshall is the producers Jurassic World. Guess who he’s married to?? Our very own Kathleen Kennedy, Chairperson of Lucas film and Producer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens…
Nice work Mix Master Mike!
Episode VIII Adam Driver Showers
Sounds better,guessing Disney leaked this themself to cam us.Anyways they still f up !
I love all this speculation and anticipation for episode 7, i mean for the past year(ish) i have checked this and 2 other websites daily. I don’t think i could keep that up for years and years. For the SW fans who have been around since the PT release I was wondering if this is the norm or do you think things will be a little different and not as tight lipped for the coming films?
“Mostly focused on Ridley.”
For a while it seamed that John Boyega would be the new main character, but with all the rumours, concept art lately it seems to suggest that Ridley’s character will be the main character. Is Ridley the new lead? The new Luke Skywalker so to speak?
If she is lookin hot, yes. If not, no.
Defiently two trailers will be big-ger plans.
Milions of people talking excited about a trailer meanwhile milions of people talking about another amazing trailer.
And all of them searching the internet like crazy people looking for what the others have seen.
I think the galactic war begins here…
News: Rick Heinrichs is Production Designer of Star Wars: Episode VIII…
Interesting Choice..Probably a big hint to the way Episode VIII will go “into darkness”
That’s 1 minute, 28 seconds.
And fret not, it’ll go live on Monday, Dec 1st.
it will prob be online somewhere eventually.
88 seconds.lol
Back to the future it is, then.
You’re gonna see some serious Sith.
I wouldn’t take Slashfilm too seriously. They claimed teaser would be on 100 theaters and that clearly was not the case
Just leaked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuahzQ8Xjpw
Troll
Contrary to other readers, I deeply respect starwars7news’ lack of hate-rants. They provide comparatively grounded info and intriguing speculation, devoid of updates on how much the author(s) hate Jar Jar.
Classy website you got here (until you scroll down to the comments section)
If a surprise teaser is shown on television Turkey Day, my bet would be the Cowboys-Eagles match up. The Dallas game is the biggest audience of any football game during the regular season, with consistent viewership in the 35 million range. Another possible spot could be Macy’s which garners 40 million, though that is in the morning and telecast on multiple networks with a larger younger viewing audience. They could wait till the break before Santa shows up which is closer to noon. My wager would be on the game though because it runs till 8 pm.
My original comment was nothing to do with encouraging starwars7news to post vitriol of any description. Disney shafting MOST of the fanbase by ONLY releasing the teaser in the states is a huge story or at minimum article worthy. It’s almost like they[Disney] don’t understand or get the cultural phenomenon/impact of Star Wars. It was never about posting hate/derision… surely you can remain intelligent and speak out against these things and remain representative of the general feeling of the fanbase who were mostly overlooked for this teaser.
Oh My God! Give it a rest! You have no idea, ZERO, what Disney has planned! None of us actually do.
If there is an online release the same day or the day after the theatrical release than EVERYONE will have access to the teaser, including you whiny people outside the US.
Geezus.
The part about why Thanksgiving was mentioned over Black Friday.
Because JJ was being jovial,polite, and festive.
He wrote Thanksgiving most likely because he celebrates that like most people….
Its that time of year!
People don’t go around saying hey happy Black Friday!
Black Friday is not a Holiday at all.
Its not even a celebration.
JJ was just simply respecting the time of year and being congenial.
Its time to wake up!
As far as marketing at this point.
Star Wars as a brand does not have to even advertise.
Limited theaters, why?
Because it gives them confirmation that there is still a frenzy for star wars.
The rich worry constantly about their investments.
One trailer from Friday… that will be online the same day in varying quality. Lucasfilm, knowing this will happen, create a different trailer for putting in front of The Hobbit, because why would they put the exact same trailer everyone has seen a hundred times in front such a huge movie a month later? I can’t see them doing that. So they’ll roll out the second teaser for The Hobbit. That’s my guess.
Makes a lot of sense!
[nerd] I just checked out the Aurebesh text next to the date in the generic downloadable font and it says “see file = 11/27/13”. I’ll see if I can get a higher res screenshot of the scene and work out the rest in case there are any little easter eggs there…. [/nerd]
here is the first trailers compilation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJQ0gKViBL...
NO SPOILER 😛