I can't praise Disney enough for their handling of Star Wars: The Force Awakens' marketing. In a climate where every major release is accompanied by trailers with a cumulative runtime longer than the movie they're selling and the saturation of tie-in material reveals far too much, the marketing for Episode VII has been incredibly restrained. Two teaser trailers, a short Instagram clip and a Korean TV spot containing no unique footage is all we've got, and I'm more than OK with that. Best of all, pretty much all of the toys (a Star Wars institution that in the past contained major spoilers) have been rooted in the content of these early ads - it's all Kylo Ren and Han stood in the Falcon corridor. No Trash Compacter Escape of Toy Story 3 here. So naturally I'm approaching the third trailer with excitement, rather than fear in the pit of my stomach something that would be best experienced in the cinema will be spoiled (see Avengers: Age Of Ultron for how to do that wrong). And, after speculation pretty much since the behind-the-scenes video was released at Comic-Con in July, we know when that final trailer will hit; according to Star Wars 7 News, the tease is meant to be released on October 19th, to coincide with tickets for the film going on sale (and mere days after the premiere of Rebels Season 2). That's certainly a way to beat the Monday blues. Expect this trailer to offer up some tangible plot details, introduce a few of the lesser seen supporting characters and generally set the scene of the post-Return Of The Jedi galaxy on top of promoting that wonderful mesh of nostalgia and new we've become accustomed to, although presumably still with little in the way of narrative spoilers. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in cinemas from 17th December in the UK and 18th December in the US.
