Ten years ago, Star Wars still felt like magic. Some people remember where they were for the Moon landing; I remember where I was when the first teaser for The Force Awakens launched online (at an old girlfriend’s house after Black Friday brunch). Every frame was scrutinized: the cross-guarded saber, X-Wings roaring planetside, BB-8’s anxious roll. The plot, shrouded in another J.J. Abrams mystery, was teased in marketing and merch, where posters and action figures of Kylo Ren doubled as conduits of hype and intrigue. Everything was sacred.
These were the early days of Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, and the sense of anticipation was running high. J.J. Abrams, the restarter of fading franchises, and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, royal alumnus of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, had a task that required more resolve than lifting an X-Wing out of a Dagobah swamp. They had to make a Star Wars movie 10 years after George Lucas completed the prequel trilogy, without Lucas’ involvement, and it had to be good. There have been many criticisms lobbed at The Force Awakens since its release, many fair. But it nailed making Star Wars feel truly mythic again.
