Ranking The 11 Shots From The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer

3) That’s Our Boy(ega)

Nostalgia Bait: 70/100

Neat New Stuff: 70/100

Not going to lie: when the trailer opened with (what sounds like) Max von Sydow talking about the “awakening,” I giggled a bit, mainly because the trailer was setting itself up exactly like the one for Star Trek Into Darkness. Baritone European dudes issuing vague warnings just kind of run together. The Tunisian landscape is nice and all, but the expectation set by the first few seconds of the trailer is for a prolonged tease.

But then John Boyega pops up from the bottom of the frame, accompanied by the sting of a John Williams horn section, and what starts off as a self-important nostalgia trip gets a much-needed kick in the pants.

At 14 seconds in length, this is easily the longest shot of the entire trailer, and the one responsible for setting the tone for what’s to follow. Alone, panicked, and helmetless, Boyega’s trooper instantly adds a messy human element to a trailer that could have gotten by on CG glory shots. As with Ridley, Boyega’s presence firmly establishes that the new trilogy is just as much about adding to the Star Wars legacy as it is revisiting it.