Awesome The Force Awakens

Lessons from the Screenplay compares Rogue One and The Force Awakens to teach the basics of storytelling: creating active protagonists, adding flaws for characters to overcome, introducing events that drive the story forward, and more.

“It was like visiting an old friend.” Renowned composer John Williams talks about creating the soundtrack of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, briefly describing his approach to Rey’s and Kylo Ren’s themes, and more.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been lauded for its return to the in-camera and practical effects style of Episodes IV-VI, but the magic on screen was a deft blending of traditional and modern techniques, as demonstrated in these clips from Wired’s DesignFX and IAMAG.

To see what it’s like to be one of the many minions supporting the First Order, head cheese Kylo Ren goes “deep” undercover to live among the great unwashed in this sketch that makes us wonder how employees on Undercover Boss are so clueless about their disguised superiors.

Like most J.J. Abrams movies, The Force Awakens left us with as many questions as answers. Like where did Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma get her awesomely shiny stormtrooper armor. Well, thanks to YouTuber levellord, we now know.

Jimmy Fallon enlisted the help of The Roots and the cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to each sing a part of John Williams’ Main Theme from Star Wars. And yes, Mark Hamill is nowhere to be found yet again.

The latest TV spot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens focuses in on bad guy Kylo Ren and The Dark Side of the Force, as he mounts a huge army of stormtroopers – some with flamethrowers – and takes on our new heroes in both epic and mano-a-mano battles.

Austin Hale redubbed the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, removing the existing voices, music, and sound effects, and replacing them with his own vocals. While he makes no effort to do character impressions, his silly sound effects are just right.

It’s worth digging through every second of the latest trailer to whet your appetite and feed your fan theories until December 18th. We’re a little concerned from his black-hooded appearance at 1:40 (and the mysterious masked Kylo Ren) that Luke might be a bad guy now.

“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?” The Star Wars Korea YouTube page posted a new 30-second teaser for Episode VII. While it’s mostly stuff we’ve seen before, there’s a tiny bit of new footage and a focus on the bad guys.

Instead of spoiling any scenes from Star Wars: Episode VII at this year’s Comic-Con, the studio shared this wonderful footage of the film’s return to practical effects, real sets, and the joy and reverence of the cast and crew. (Thanks Paul!)

The new teaser trailer for Episode VII is guaranteed to give Star Wars junkies both thrills and chills, and leaves us with the warm, fuzzy feeling that after the much derided prequels, the series is finally coming home.

We know, we know. We’ve had enough parodies of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser for a lifetime. So what’s one more we say? Here, the denizens of the Super Smash Bros. universe head to a galaxy far, far away. (Thanks, Erik!)