Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens Releasing Too Much Footage?

How much is too much?

There should be a pretty simple rule in life: if Google are releasing a plug-in designed specifically to stop people talking about something, they're probably talking about it too much. And while the Google Chrome Star Wars Spoiler Blocker extension as it is so aerodynamically named is designed mostly to stop early screener viewers being 'holes and telling everyone that Wicket dies, it's an indication of something wider that's been borne out of Disney's own marketing strategy. So far, despite assurances that the third major trailer was going to be the "final" one released, we've had a fairly revelatory International trailer and a host of TV spots that all seem to have swerved the usual expectations of offering only recut trailer footage by dropping new shots, new dialogue and new story hints. In other words, LucasFilm have created a marketing saga that has revealed a hell of a lot. This is by now means a terrible thing for Star Wars fans: it gets the blood pumping and any chance to talk the universe is inevitably heartily welcomed. But how much is too much? Atypically of a Disney marketing strategy, the initial trailers (before the International one reared its head) were actually very good. They probably could have been edited slightly better, but the general tone, the amount of teasing and the hype building were all spot on. And crucially they left the audience wanting more. #Where'sLuke might as well have become a meme in the wake of them, and that can't have been any accident (and nor was it a problem). But flash forward a few more weeks and a new TV spot seems to land every couple of days with new material that it's becoming hard to keep up with. Mysteries that were driving hype have started to be pieced together, and rather fatally, fans have stopped watching out of fear that Disney won't be able to help themselves and spoil something too far. It is a legitimate, appropriate fear too: we now live as film fans in the age of the spoilerific trailer where marketing firms and hype builders ignore the value of seeding and subtlety to put the funniest jokes, the hottest action sequences and actual plot details in their teasers. That's not so much marketing foreplay as it is quickly tumbling into bed for a quick, unsatisfying fumble. The thrills are only ever short-lived. And the odd thing is, Disney don't even need it. Without the trailers, the film would have done more than a billion dollars at the box office. It probably would have done twice that, even if the trailers were as terrible as the first one released so notoriously for the original Star Wars. But now all the TV spots are doing is burning more marketing cash and affecting the profit margin, while inspiring cynicism in even the most ardently committed fan groups. That's not good business. But how do you feel about the Star Wars: The Force Awakens marketing so far? Have we seen too much? Should JJ Abrams have remained as mysterious as he usually is over his films? Let us know in the poll below...
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