Since the teaser hit on Friday, I’ve had people (usually very excited) asking me about my reaction to the trailer. Oddly, I’m feeling rather ambivalent.

First, for reference:

The first time I watched it, I actually thought it was another fanfilm trailer mashup. JJ Abrams is delving really hard into the old Ralph McQuarrie concept art for the first trilogy – something the people creating Star Wars media seem to be doing since we saw the Y-wing bombers in the first season of Clone Wars.

Parts of the teaser made me smile and thrilled me a bit – namely, the trio of X-wings skimming the lake (I don’t even mind the new design) and the Millennium Falcon evading TIE Fighters (presumably over the sands of Tatooine). Some of that is probably nostalgia for the golden years of LucasArts gaming: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs TIE Fighters, X-Wing Alliance, or even Star Wars Galaxies before it shut down.

Much of the rest of the teaser did almost nothing for me. The (presumably) Sith Lord’s lightsaber design didn’t bother me (though it was why I first thought it was a fan trailer, not the real deal), and the new droid looked ridiculous. The rest of it looked pretty much like I expected a Star Wars teaser to look.

Maybe I’m getting cynical. The past fifteen years of Star Wars productions has been very hit-or-miss across the board, from movies to television shows to gaming. For every good production it seems like there’s been two terrible ones. Maybe JJ Abrams is the guy who will turn that around, but I’m reserving judgement until (at minimum) I get to see a full trailer.

And maybe someday, when Shattered Expanse is a multi-billion dollar media enterprise, I’ll be in a position to comment and actually have something to say that people will listen to!