As of Tuesday, the first public screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens aren't so far, far away -- they're a mere month into the future. On the evening of December 17, audiences will finally get to see inside this particular J.J. Abrams mystery box, the contents of which are about as locked up as they have been for any major movie in history.
Trouble is, that mystery box isn't shut quite as tight as Abrams might have liked.
The director explicitly stated that the third trailer, the one released during Monday Night Football on October 19, would be the film's last. But since then, we've seen this significantly different Japanese trailer, a 30-second TV spot with new scenes, and a 60-second TV spot (which would technically count as a trailer if it were one second longer) that was unveiled during a Shonda Rhimes-produced block of ABC programming that attempted to cash in on Star Wars fever.
Also cashing in were this Verizon ad, shot on the set of the movie, and this Duracell ad, which fans obsessively deconstructed for clues.
To this asteroid field of hype we must add another TV spot, below:
And not one but two versions of a promo spot on Disney's kids channel, Disney XD. Here's the U.S. version:
Now notice the subtle differences in the UK version -- it's not just a different presenter:
Notice also the poorer quality on those videos, both of which were shot by fans from TV screens. They're not quite as bad as the "potato phone" videos of movie trailers, but they're getting there.
Which is a shame, because Lucasfilm understands the inevitability of social media sharing around new Star Wars content. The company posted high-definition versions of all three official trailers, and even a behind-the-scenes video released at Comic-Con this summer, in an extremely timely fashion. The minute any audience saw them, we were all able to see them in the highest quality possible.
Disney and ABC evidently don't see things the same way. It took hours to release the ABC 60-second spot, by which time dozens of poor-quality versions had proliferated across YouTube. A similar delay happened with the TV spot above, and the Disney XD promos still haven't been officially released. Which is odd, considering that they're, you know, promos.
Beyond the quality question lies the quantity question. Is there any value to continually releasing tiny snippets of new footage? A number of fans are starting to get irked by the trend:
Dear @Disney, please reign in your #StarWars licensing and trailer people. Too much of a good thing is still too much.— Hal Halpin (@HalHalpin) November 14, 2015
Disney should quit releasing trailer after trailer w/ new Star Wars: TFA footage. Interest is already high. Quit revealing too much.— Carl Hancock (@carlhancock) November 13, 2015
Not going to watch that Star Wars "tv slot" trailer. In fact I'm not watching any more now until the movie, feel like I'm seeing too much— Dan Walsh (@travors) November 13, 2015