As hard as it may be to believe, the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is only a few months away. As such, Disney is beginning to seriously roll out its promotional campaign for the film. There has already been quite a bit of marketing thus far, with some examples being Force Friday and the recent video that took fans on an immersive tour of Jakku.
While director J.J Abrams and the Lucasfilm marketing team have made sure nothing too important has leaked, there have been a few reveals of supporting characters and such found in the promotion for the film. But for the most part, what we have seen so far has only featured the new characters plus a few of the returning cast, like Han and Chewie.
StarWars.com (via CBM) has now unveiled a number of covers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens tie-in books, some of which can be found below. In these images are new looks at the core cast of heroes – Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) – with some of the villains – Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) – featured as well. Also present are Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), along with the new Stormtroopers and Flametroopers of the First Order.
Perhaps more important, however, is who is not featured in the latest round of promotional material for The Force Awakens. Despite the film’s release being only a few months away, we’re still without an official look at Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the film. Given that it’s likely Luke will play an important role, it’s surprising that Disney is still holding him back. There has also only been one look at Carrie Fisher returning as Princess Leia, briefly found in the behind-the-scenes footage shown at Comic-Con.
It’s unknown at this time when Lucasfilm will begin to showcase these characters as well. A possible scenario would be unveiling Luke in the next trailer for The Force Awakens, which would make sense given that full-length trailers tend to include more story elements than teaser trailers do. However, it’s still anyone’s guess as to when these characters will be revealed – maybe Disney is planning on keeping them confidential until the film itself is released.
As StarWars.com notes, there are still a number of books to come on the release date of The Force Awakens, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens New Adventures, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Adult Novelization, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens Junior Novelization. There’s a good chance those will have the characters Lucasfilm has been reluctant to reveal.
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18th, 2015, followed by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on December 16th, 2016, Star Wars: Episode VIII on May 26th, 2017, and the Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film on May 25th, 2018. Star Wars: Episode IX is expected to reach theaters in 2019, followed by the third Star Wars Anthology film in 2020.
