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28 March 2024

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' - Abu Dhabi where battle rages

The seventh edition of the 'Star Wars' franchise is set for release on December 18. (Screen grab)

Published
By Ajanta Paul with Agency

With six films, nearly 40 years of history and a decade of anticipation since their last film, 'Star Wars' is back.

The new trailer opens with a vehicle racing along a desert-like planet called Jakku, as Luke Skywalker's voice says, "The Force is strong with my family. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it. You have it too."

And where is Jakku exactly? Welcome to Abu Dhabi's beautiful desert scapes.

The seventh edition of the franchise released its first trailer on Thursday featuring part of the Liwa Desert.

The trailer starts with a pan shot of the desert following a vehicle driving across Jakku. The shot finally shows a crash landed Star Destroyer.

Other giant set-pieces show battling X-Wings across both the desert and greener locations.

But Abu Dhabi is sure to feature a major battle which stirs the course of future action.

"Chewie, we're home."

So declares Harrison Ford's Han Solo in a new trailer released on Thursday for 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' the much anticipated return of one the most celebrated movie franchises of all time.

The trailer was the highlight of the annual 'Star Wars Celebration' fan convention, where thousands of fans flocked to see old and new cast members discuss the movie set for release on Dec 18.

Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) joined Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, the lead actors of 'The Force Awakens,' director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy to answer questions.

Ford, who first played Han Solo in the original 1977 movie, was unable to attend after being injured when he crash-landed a small plane on a golf course last month. Abrams said the actor was well and resting.

The first look at Ford in the new film prompted wild cheers in the convention hall from fans dressed in costume and wielding glowing lightsabers.

Other glimpses in the roughly 90-second clip show Isaac's Poe Dameron in his X-wing, John Boyega's Finn in a Stormtrooper suit, Daisy Ridley's Rey running from a big explosion and new droid BB-8.

It concludes with Han Solo donning a leather jacket and standing next to Chewbacca.

Newcomers Boyega and Ridley revealed only a few details of their characters. Ridley plays 'Rey,' who she described as a 'scavenger' on the desert planet Jakku.

Boyega is 'Finn' though he declined to say whether the stormtrooper costume he dons is merely a disguise. Actor Oscar Isaac described his character,  'Poe Dameron' as "the best freakin pilot in the Galaxy, sent on a mission by a certain princess."

Abrams said that he sought a balance between the gritty, hand-made appearance of the original 'Star Wars' films and the slicker look of the prequels. He said that filming in Abu Dhabi had helped bring the quality of 'a Western and a fairly tale' that imbued the early films.

Both actress Fisher and producer Kennedy noted there will be a push to have more women in the next, and future, 'Star Wars' installments. Kennedy said 'really strong women' will appear in the next film and others on the more distant horizon. 'I have two girls too,' Kennedy said. 'I'm under a lot of pressure.'

'The Force Awakens,' produced by Walt Disney Co, picks up 30 years after 'Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.'

Isaac, Ridley and Boyega revealed tidbits about their characters in a film that has been shrouded in secrecy.

Rey is a "very self-sufficient and solitary" scavenger in a ship graveyard, Ridley said.

Boyega's character Finn has confused fans about whether he's a villain or a hero. Boyega nodded when asked if he was a Stormtrooper, a soldier of the dark side.

"We find Finn in incredible danger and the way in which he decides to react to the danger changes his life," Boyega said.

Poe Dameron was "sent on a mission by a certain princess and he ends up coming across Finn, and their fates are forever intertwined," he said.