VFX Star Wars breaks pre-sales records riding on the new trailer and poster releases -

Star Wars breaks pre-sales records riding on the new trailer and poster releases

The gang of Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie are back along with  a couple of new characters in the epic saga Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the human world is welcoming their return to screen after a 10 year hiatus with open arms. The new trailer that released on Monday – and will mostly be the last of what we will see before the 18 December release – has broken the internet, literally.

The trailer does not explain much about the Galaxy travelers, their voyage and the great war that is on the anvil but the mystery revolving around the characters and how will each of them shape in the next trilogy is still murky. The trailer in the 48 hours has been viewed 25 million times on YouTube and hit 1 million mark on Facebook in the first 23 minutes.

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Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) are the two characters who are mostly seen during the 2 and a half minute trailer with the glimpses from antagonist Kylo Ren wanting finish what was started by Darth Vader as his broken mask sits in front of Ren.

Trailer starts with Lupita Nyong’o voice questioning Rey, “Who are you?”, with the desert scavenger Rey replying, “I am no one.” The Nyong’o is nowhere to be seen in the trailer but she is play a character Maz Kanata, a princess of a planet which is mostly likely to have a CG alien look a la Jar Jar.

Finn who is seen in all three trailers is a stromtrooper who has had a change of heart and changes sides to fight for The Rebels. Removing his helmet he says, “I was raised to do one thing but I’ve got nothing to fight for.”

Then there is Kylo Ren, a new enemy in similar attire as Darth Vader wants to carry forward his lost cause, says in a low distorted voice, “Nothing will stand in our way – I will finish what you started.” His helmet too is an ode to Vader according to JJ Abrams along with his crossguard lightsaber.

And the ending closes with the couple Han Solo and Leia embracing each other with a worried look for what evil is to come upon them.

A lot of fan theories have cropped with an absence of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the trailer as to what will be ‘the greatest Jedi that galaxy is has ever known’ role be.

Some theorists believe that he has now changed sides and will take over the mission his father started. But some say, he will not change sides but will be the one who will be the backbone for the new kids on the block.

Other theories say that Rey and Ren are twins from Han and Leia and Ren has chosen his grandfather’s side for he thinks that his grandfather did nothing wrong and was saving what he loved.

The trailer also marked the start of pre-bookings for the movie and the sales for the same have shattered the all time records with the online booking sites like Fandango have had an outage with people thronging the sites to watch the epic saga unfold.

The online ticket booking site Fandango had a record-setting first day of pre-sales, selling eight times as many tickets as it did on the first day of sales for the previous record holder. The first Hunger Games movie was the record holder for the site. The movie has collected $6.5 million in the pre-ticket sales in US itself with record breaking tickets sales in Europe too selling 45,000 tickets with Vue Entertainment.

At the same time with Star Wars: Force Awakens movie generating a strong buzz, we will get to see the anthropomorphic green rabbit named Jaxxon in the upcoming comic, Vader Down #1 issue. Though Jaxxon quickly faded into obscurity, he was earlier seen in Marvel’s original Star Wars comics in the late 1970s by the legends Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin. Jaxxon will now be seen confronting Darth Vader in the new issue which has been written by Sex Criminals artist and Howard the Duck writer Chip Zdarsky.

star wars vader down variant coverVader Down is the first crossover between Marvel’s current Star Wars comics line, with the story starting in Vader Down #1 and continuing in the ongoing Star Wars and Darth Vader series. Vader Down #1, written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Mike Deodato, is scheduled for release on 17 November.

As the movie dates are approaching, AMC Theatres will be seen promoting exclusive IMAX posters that were created by artist Dan Mumford for the film. Each Sunday between 20 December and 10 January, guests who purchase a movie ticket for IMAX 3D, will receive a free print of the poster. In the debut poster (First image in the article) we can see Daisy Ridley’s Rey, with the droid BB-8, gazing across the relics of the Battle of Jakku, with the wreckage of Imperial Star Destroyers looming in the distance. We will get to see three more exclusive IMAX posters in upcoming time.

Directed by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens releases on 18 December.

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