Marty McFly had the Delorean, and James Bond has his Aston Martin DB5, but the Star Wars saga would be nothing without Han Solo’s trusty ship: the Millennium Falcon. Having made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, and capable of making point five past light speed, the iconic vessel is the means by which some of the greatest Star Wars adventures were made possible. A new featurette for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been released that places special emphasis on the Falcon, check it out below:
Ultimately, the thematic crux of the entire featurette is the notion of a legacy – that a new generation of actors and characters will be handed the next chapter of this iconic saga by the old guard. Arguably nothing in the Star Wars universe highlights the changing of the guard better than the Millennium Falcon; the ship soared over Coruscant during the prequel trilogy, only to fall into Lando Calrissian’s hands and then be subsequently lost to Han Solo in a game of Sabaac decades later. Now that Han and Chewie have gotten somewhat long in the tooth, they will use the iconic spaceship to take Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) on a journey through the galaxy far, far away and draft them into their righteous cause.
Even beyond the thematic aspect of the video, the featurette simply gives us a better look at the Falcon as she will appear in The Force Awakens . Behind the scenes, it becomes increasingly apparent how practical the effects are, as well as the scope of the sets used to create the Falcon. At one point John Boyega is standing next to it waiting for a take to begin, and the ship completely dwarfs him.
In terms of story, the video also shows a bit more of the Millennium Falcon’s adventures on Jakku – especially when it begins evading TIE fighters through a derelict Star Destroyer. The end of the featurette also shows the Falcon coming out of light speed, meaning that the hyperdrive repairs R2-D2 made on the ship back in The Empire Strikes Back have at the very least been upheld in recent years.
If you’re anything like us, we highly recommend that you check out the video above, because you probably are a voracious consumer of all things related to The Force Awakens. That being said, none of these marketing materials will ever compare to the experience of actually sitting in the movie theater and watching the Millennium Falcon hit light speed again after all these years.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will blast into theaters on December 18, and that day cannot come fast enough.
