At a press screening Tuesday evening for “Planes: Fire and Rescue,” we were treated to a new preview of “Star Wars: Rebels.” Does this mean this commercial is packaged with Disney’s new movie, or was this just a sneak peak that might not get released until, say, Comic-Con? Hard to say, but here’s a quick rundown of the trailer:
Most (all?) of it was footage we’ve already seen or pretty pedestrian: Stormtroopers, the holovid of the Sith Inquisitor looking menacing, Kanan taking on a squad and the Imperial officer breathless telllng them to target the. . . Jedi?. I think all of that is in the original 60 and 30 second trailers:
In fact, this may just be a slightly modified/recut version of that 30 second trailer.
But what’s showcased here is a lot of action. Disney obviously understands the target audience of Planes and Star Wars (young boys) and this is made specifically for them.
This was also packaged with a Phineas and Ferb themed Disney: Infinity commercial and a promo for “Girl Meets World.”
It’s also possible this trailer only played in front of the press screenings to get audience feedback on upcoming programs or films. For instance, poor audience reaction to trailers for the Wachowskis’ sci-fi epic “Jupiter Ascending” starring Mila Kunis/Channing Tatum that played before promotional screenings of “Godzilla” were part of the reason that movie got bumped by seven months from. . .well, this week to February of next year.
If marketing reps were looking for audience reaction, they got it. There were several cheers and whoops of joy from the audience in our theater here in Austin. And, I might add, this show looks amazing on a big screen. Congrats to Filoni and Co. I hope to be able to watch more episodes of “Rebels” on a screen bigger than my iPad sometime in the future.
If you’re going to see Planes this weekend, keep an eye out for it. But no guarantees it’s actually showing with your screening.
We’ll keep an eye out for more Rebels news, which I bet we get a lot of news about at Comic-Con next week. Swank will be there covering it all, so stay tuned. And may the Force be with you.