Continuing on its promotional campaign for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney has today debuted a fresh batch of artwork for J.J. Abrams’ upcoming sequel that highlights the film’s Elite Stormtrooper and a Speeder mid-flight.
Essentially, the concept art is in effort to drum up excitement for this weekend’s Force Friday, which will herald a whole host of toys and merchandise for Episode VII. In fact, today’s trio of stills arrive mere days after promotional material drew attention to both sides of the Force, including stylized action shots of Daisy Ridley’s Rey, Chewbacca and the loveable droid that is BB-8.
Don’t let the title fool you, though, Force Friday is primed to be a weekend event in all but name, with the first wave of toys expected to be formally revealed – or, should we say, unboxed – in Sydney, Australia at 7:45 a.m. local time on Thursday, Sept. 3 (5:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 2). All of this will culminate in a grand finale at Lucasfilm HQ in San Francisco at the much more reasonable time of 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) on Thursday, Sept. 3. Could we get glimpses of character designs for the likes of Luke and Leia? Time will tell.
Assembling newcomers and franchise stalwarts alike, Abrams’ cast for The Force Awakens is a crowded affair, with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong’o and Max von Sydow all on board for the galactic adventure.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will kickstart Disney’s renewed sci-fi space opera when J.J. Abrams’ feature lands in theaters on December 18.
