Skip to content

Breaking News

Author
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

You have never seen more grown men do the no-I’m-not-crying subtle swipe at a tear drop on their faces than you did the moment Harrison Ford turned to his large brown furry sidekick, Chewbacca, and said: “Chewie, we’re home.” On Thursday morning here at the Anaheim Convention Center, director J.J Abrams debuted about 90 seconds of new footage of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to a packed room. The occasion was “Star Wars: Celebration,” the enormous, every-once-in-a-Tattooine-moon, Lucasfilm-organized “Star Wars” convention, and when Ford, as Han Solo, and Chewie appeared at the end of the footage, Ron Stein, of Maryland, turned to his brother and said:

“The hair stood on my head.”

Stein is bald.

The trailer was the opening salvo at Celebration, the culmination of a morning State-of-the-Star-Wars-Universe address from Abrams and “Star Wars” producer Kathleen Kennedy that became a surprisingly moving love fest. Before several thousand fans — and far more watching via a simulcast pumped into spill-over rooms — Mark Hamill, also known as Luke Skywalker, told the crowd: “Over the years, my entire adult life, I felt such love from you, and you have become more than fans, you are family.”

Carrie Fisher, a.k.a. Princess Leia, leaned in to him affectionately.

In the hall, you could feel the goose bumps erupting; when the trailer played, and that iconic John Williams theme music pounded at full volume, a very hipster-looking young woman in a vintage “Star Wars” T-shirt put a hand to her mouth and looked overwhelmed and gasped out a laugh of joy.

Really.

Juan Carlos Herrera, 28, of Anaheim, said immediately after, “It really looks like the best of the ‘Star Wars’ movies — but then, I am emotionally flushed.”

Kris Mac, of Seattle, stood outside the hall and decided:

“I have to say, it really does look well-done. It looks as epic as it should be.”

On stage, Abrams and Kennedy were joined by much of the original cast (and R2-D2), along with three young actors appearing in the new film, including Oscar Isaac and John Boyega, who told a story about asking Ford to autograph a Han Solo doll while on the set: “He said to me, ‘This is just weird.'”

The overall vibe was something like an Apple product unveiling meeting a family reunion, with everyone in the room leaning forward to divine bits of information. Fisher quipped that her old Princess Leia hair buns were “tired,” and she replaced in the new film with something nice — but no bikini.

Kennedy also mentioned that, going forward, the series would include far more strong female characters, not unlike Leia. And in a fairly militaristic moment, a troop of newly designed Stormtroopers paraded on the stage.

It was the only moment that drew a hint of derision. A thirtysomething man standing in the back of the area whispered loudly to his friend: “They look like the old Stormtroopers, but someone drew a smiley face on them.”

That said, during the Q&A portion of the event, Abrams was asked how he could guarantee the film would be good, and he did not hesitate to give an upbeat non-answer: “Well, we just will.”

cborrelli@tribune.com

Twitter @borrelli