'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': 6 Surprises and Secrets From the New Teaser

The secret to pleasing Star Wars fans is to make us feel like kids again – and boy, does this new teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit that mark.

Director J.J. Abrams unveiled the new teaser on Thursday morning at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, where the crowd roared with delight to see Han Solo and Chewbacca side-by-side once again.

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Now that our initial heart palpitations (Palpatine-tations?) have subsided, here’s a closer look at six of our favourite moments, discoveries, and possible Easter eggs:

1) All of our old friends are back!

Han and Chewie made the splashiest cameo, but multiple characters from the original Star Wars trilogy appear in the teaser. The voiceover is clearly Mark Hamill, reciting a variation on one of Luke Skywalker’s lines from Return of the Jedi. (More on that in a minute). Luke doesn’t show his face, but that appears to be him stroking R2-D2 with a robotic hand. Darth Vader makes a semi-cameo as well, in a shot of what appears to be his withered skull. Unfortunately, C3PO is still a no-show, as is Princess Leia (though she’s mentioned in the voiceover). That new hair-do that Carrie Fisher mentioned at SWCA will remain a mystery for now.

2) Daisy Ridley is the new Jedi.

In the SWCA panel, we learned that Daisy Ridley’s character Rey is a “very solitary” scavenger who lives on the desert planet Jakku — until she’s pulled into a great adventure. Remember that other Star Wars character who lived a lonely life on a desert planet until a chance encounter with the Rebellion? Ridley is unmistakably dressed like Luke Skywalker in the trailer, and that’s definitely Skywalker’s original lightsaber being handed to… somebody (likely a female, judging by the nails). Is Rey our new Jedi hero? Is the original Luke Skywalker her Obi-Wan? Are we going to pass out with excitement? (Probably.)

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3) The Dark Side has some new baddies.

We still don’t know much about villain Kylo Ren, except that he carries a cross-guard lightsaber, wears a full-face mask, and looks really, really awesome. Judging from the trailer, he and his forces are wreaking significant havoc on the good guys, assembling an army of Stormtroopers, trying to blow up new characters Rey and Finn (John Boyega), and taking on a fleet of TIE Fighters. There’s a pilot outfitted in Sith colors chasing after the Millennium Falcon, and a character who resembles a chrome Boba Fett, and we want toys of all of them, immediately. Behind one of these masks is probably Adam Driver (whose character hasn’t been announced), and Vulture is reporting that the shiny Stormtrooper is played by Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie.

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4) Callbacks to the original trilogy abound.

Back to that voiceover for a minute: The dialogue is taken from the scene in Return of the Jedi in which Luke tells Leia that she’s his sister, and that she too has the power of the force. However, in this new version, there’s a twist: Luke is talking to someone else, saying that he or she also has the family gift. (Is it Rey? Please let it be Rey.) That joyful whoop emitted by Oscar Isaac recalls another cocky space pilot, Han Solo, celebrating the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope. We’ve already mentioned that Daisy Ridley is dressed like Luke Skywalker. And of course, all the spaceships we’ve seen so far – X-Wings, TIE fighters, a Star Destroyer, the Millennium Falcon – are decidedly old-school.

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5. BB-8!

The ball droid who made his debut in the first teaser trailer is back, and even cuter this time around. Mark Hamill told us that he played with the BB-8 on set, and that still sounds like the most fun thing that has ever happened.

6. Han and Chewbacca, together again.

We said it before, but we’ll say it again: the sight of Han Solo and Chewie reunited in the Millennium Falcon feels like Christmas morning. Or rather, Wookiee Life Day.

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