When are we going to get our first look at Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Last week there were rumors that the first ever trailer for the movie would be attached to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, but it turns out that the debut footage may actually be hitting a theater near you this weekend.
Sources have told the folks over at SlashFilm that the first ever teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in theaters during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. There is, however, a particular catch that comes with the report: the teaser won't be playing everywhere. According to the report, the footage will only be shown in a limited number of venues that are "participating in the 'preview'." We've reached out to our own sources at Disney, but at the time of this story's publication there has not been a response.
Adding an extra twist to this story is that SlashFilm's report is a further development of a story that actually first broke with an unsubstantiated posted on the Star Wars Reddit page from a user named Crichton252. In a post titled "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer will be in theaters 11-28-2014," the user originally wrote:
"Looks like they are going to release it attached to most if not all films in select theaters. Not sure how wide it will go but this is at least good news."
Later in the thread the user added that they received their information from an internal email, as they claim to work for "one of the theater chains." Another Reddit user claimed that they could confirm the original user's story, and while that person's post has since been deleted, SlashFilm says that there is talk of Star Wars: The Force Awakens' teaser trailer being shown in 100 theaters nationwide "in front of every showtime for every single movie." Furthermore, there it says that Disney requested that screenings of Big Hero 6 be scheduled for the earliest time possible in the day. Slashfilm says that they trust the source that confirmed the reports and that they believe the news is legitimate.
How will this be affecting your weekend plans? Will you be postponing your Black Friday shopping spree so that you can go to an early screening near you, hoping to catch a first glimpse of Star Wars: Episode VII? Or do you not put any stock in this rumor and won't believe it until there is hard proof? It's hard to imagine that Disney/LucasFilm would pull this kind of stunt without at least SOME kind of promotion ahead of it, but J.J. Abrams' secretive ways make it a bit of a wild card.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be in theaters December 17, 2015.
