Star Wars has provided fans with some of greatest, most memorable villains in cinema history. From Darth Vader to the Emperor to Boba Fett, there have been some great ones, and, from what we’ve seen, Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues this trend. We know that the Empire has somehow evolved into the First Order, and this new TV spot, the latest of many, gives us a glimpse of the true military might they wield.
Remember when we didn’t think we would see any new footage after the "final" trailer that dropped a little bit ago? That seems so naïve now that we’re seeing fresh clips on what feels like a near-daily basis. As has become the custom, this new TV spot for The Force Awakens, which appeared during the American Music Awards, features a handful of new bits sprinkled into a bunch images we’ve already seen.
There’s some wise new voiceover from Lupita Nyongo’s character, the motion captured Maz Kanata; a few glimpses of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and BB-8 (robot) on the desert planet of Jakku; and a bunch of shots of high action. The most striking new image, however, is the one that shows off just how powerful, not to mention terrifying, the First Order’s military will be.
Since the beginning, Star Wars has used fascist imagery to drive home the true nature of the Empire. Though we don’t know precisely how that nefarious governing body becomes the First Order just yet, there’s a definite aesthetic resemblance. From the stark, sharp lines of their Nazi-esque officers uniforms to the totalitarian looking iconography, you look at them and you immediately know these are bad dudes up to no good. This goes for when their ground forces, the stormtroopers gather en masse and salute their dictatorial leaders.
That’s some scary shit right there, but there’s even more to make us quiver in our boots as the First Order has the likes of Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) on its side, pushing it’s villainous agenda. Plus they’ve got a new weapon of mass destruction, Starkiller Base, which is supposedly a kind of next generation Death Star, but whose destructive power puts those earlier bases to shame. That’s not scary or anything.
And that’s not even mentioning the big bad pulling all the strings like an evil puppet master. We’re talking about Supreme Leader Snoke, played by Andy Serkis in performance capture. Not only is he apparently the man with the plan, he’s also freaking gigantic. Like 25-feet-tall gigantic. At this stage we’ve had glimpses of many of the new characters, including Maz Kanata, but Snoke is going to be a surprise, as even Serkis didn’t know what he looked like before they started filming.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens everywhere on December 18.
