It's here - after a string of fan-made spoofs and Rick Astley-based dummy versions, the actual, genuine teaser trailer for the world's most anticipated movie is finally online. And as Wired magazine put it - for fans it'll feel like 'the shortest 88 seconds of your life."
The trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is playing in a handful of select American cinemas this weekend, but for everyone else, the online experience will have to do. Featuring a football-shaped R2 droid, X-wings skidding across a gloomy lake, and - oh yes - the return of the Millennium Falcon, the trailer is a wonderful reminder for what is now several generations of fans, that there's still one sci-fi franchise with the power to reduce us to gibbering fanboy wrecks.
Here it is, in its all-too-brief glory, followed by a few talking points raised by the trailer and the excitement around it:
1. Wonder is a rare commodity in 2014
There are very few things that can make grown adults whoop with delight - and a new Star Wars trailer is one of them. A troops ship deploying stormtroopers... a lady riding what looks a bit like a giant flying choc-ice... and oh, the glory of the theme music! Perhaps this trailer is a great reminder that we need to constantly expose ourselves to new experiences and jaw dropping things (like, you know, the glories of creation) - because this feels so good!
2. It's good to manage expectations
On the one hand, it's directed by JJ Abrams, the man who brought us Lost, Cloverfield and the renewed Star Trek movies. On the other hand, the involvement of Disney and the somewhat mixed experience of the first set of 'new' Star Wars films (the prequels, and the unforgettable joys of Jar Jar Binks) has meant that we've not allowed ourselves to truly believe that these films are going to be awesome. And a trailer that suggests they might just be is all the sweeter for that fact.
3. We could be heading for a whole new kind of cross metaphor
Yikes. That guy in the snowy woods sure looks like a baddie - and he's wielding a new kind of light-saber... in the shape of a cross. What's all that about? And how is it going to interact with Christian religious symbolism?
As the opening voice over asks... there has been an awakening (on a global scale). Have you felt it?
Martin Saunders is an author, screenwriter and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders
