Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lizo Mzimba reports from the red carpet as Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released. 
 
 The hotly anticipated latest addition in the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens, has had its world premiere in Los Angeles. 
 
 Stars from the original series including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher joined newcomers including John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. 
 
 The plot of the film remains a closely-guarded secret and a media embargo on reviews is in place until Wednesday. 
 
 But some reviewers did post positive, if brief, comments on Twitter. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Star Wars fans react to new film: "Met all my expectations" 
 
 Adam B Vary, senior film reporter for Buzzfeed, tweeted: "Rest easy: TheForceAwakens is 100% StarWars", while LA Times film writer, Rebecca Keegan, wrote: "Story, characters, design, humour - StarWars fans, this is the movie you're looking for." 
 
 Her colleague Steve Zeitchik tweeted: "From comedy to costumes, fights to fx to overall feel, JJ Abrams has created a thoroughly old-fashioned movie." And actor Rob Lowe was also enthusiastic, tweeting: "There's a new hero in town, in a movie that DELIVERS. Cried like a baby, whooped like a teen!" 
 
 Actress Elizabeth Banks, who attended the premiere, was also impressed. She tweeted: "StarWarsForceAwakens totally delivers no spoilers I repeat no spoilers again no spoilers just wow." 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Stormtroopers marched up the red carpet in Los Angeles 
 
 According to Matthew Belloni, executive editor at Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, one man was forcibly removed from the premiere. 
 
 Fans had been camping out for days outside the TCL Chinese Theatre, which along with other LA venues screened the seventh Star Wars instalment. Security was tight, with a giant tent shrouding the red carpet. 
 
 The TCL Chinese Theatre - formerly known as Grauman's Chinese Theatre - showed the first Star Wars movie in 1977. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stars of The Force Awakens reveal their excitement at its release 
 
 More than 150 fans lined up to buy tickets for the first public screenings of Episode VII on Thursday but they got a surprise when they were all invited into one of the three cinemas showing the premiere. 
 
 But two fans, Australians Caroline Ritter and Andrew Porters, turned down the offer because they are getting married on the forecourt of Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday and will be watching the film with their friends and family afterwards. 
 
 Mr Porters said: "They invited us in. We declined. It's part of our wedding reception with friends so we passed to see it on Thursday. It was hard but it is the right decision." 
 
 Ms Ritter will walk down the makeshift aisle in a white dress accompanied by Darth Vader, while Mr Porters will wear a traditional suit but with a Stormtrooper bow tie and braces. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Newcomer Daisy Ridley plays Rey in the film 
 
 On the red carpet: BBC News entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba 
 
 Fans, many in costume, camped out for days for the chance to see the stars on the red carpet for what is probably the most eagerly awaited film of the decade. 
 
 The size and scale are a reflection of the enduring popularity of this sci-fi saga, and of the anticipation surrounding this latest instalment. 
 
 The red carpet here is around half a mile long, under a huge marquee which stretches the length of four blocks of Hollywood Boulevard. 
 
 The world premiere itself has taken over three different cinemas, and 4,000 guests are expected. Security has been tight with everyone entering the area around the event subject to bag searches and metal detectors. 
 
 There is a huge degree of excitement surrounding what is rivalling the Oscars as the film event of the year. 
 
 Disney, the studio behind the film, is hoping this will all give this new Star Wars movie a stellar launch. They paid more than $4bn (£2.6bn) for the rights to the franchise. Anticipation for the film has been huge, and in October some cinema websites collapsed under the weight of demand for tickets. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Harrison Ford was happy to pose with fans who had camped out for days hoping for a glimpse of some of the film's stars 
 
 Stormtroopers joined robots C-3PO and R2-D2 on the red carpet as the human stars arrived at Tuesday's world premiere. 
 
 "Now we have to live up to what the first films delivered,'' said Ford, who has returned to his role as Han Solo. 
 
 Star Wars creator George Lucas was spotted laughing and chatting with The Force Awakens director and co-writer JJ Abrams on the red carpet. 
 
 Lucas said the latest movie is "a film about families and what one generation leaves behind another generation has to deal with". 
 
 Abrams, who has also directed two Star Trek films, said he was not trying to put his own mark on the franchise. 
 
 "I don't look at the things I do from a vantage point of putting a stamp on it, I'm trying to service the master of the stories and the characters," he said. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Fans have been extremely excited about the long-awaited arrival of this film 
 
 Ford said he was not feeling the pressure after so much anticipation. "It's not my fault, we can blame it on JJ. I just work here," he joked. 
 
 The Force Awakens will have its UK premiere in London on Wednesday. ||||| It’s here — the real Episode Four! From the first few minutes, or even the first few frames, JJ Abrams’s exciting, spectacular and seductively innocent Star Wars: The Force Awakens shows itself a movie in the spirit of the original trilogy, which ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983. (This one takes up the story 30 years later.) 
 
 The Force Awakens reviews roundup: verdicts arrive on JJ Abrams' Star Wars epic Read more 
 
 Technically, of course, that was reconfigured as Episode Six, but The Force Awakens makes you forget about the redundancy and pedantry of the prequel-trilogy that came 15 years later. It restores the comedy that Phantom Menace abandoned. The Force Awakens is in touch with the force of action-adventure and fun. My only tiny reservation, which I will get out of the way now, is with a tiny new droid who has a bit of a Scrappy-Doo vibe about him. 
 
 The Force Awakens re-awoke my love of the first movie and turned my inner fanboy into my outer fanboy. There are very few films which leave me facially exhausted after grinning for 135 minutes, but this is one. And when Han Solo and Chewie come on, I had a feeling in the cinema I haven’t had since I was 16: not knowing whether to burst into tears or into applause. 
 
 JJ Abrams and veteran co-writer Lawrence Kasdan have created a film which is both a narrative progression from the earlier three films and a shrewdly affectionate next-gen reboot of the original 1977 Star Wars — rather in the style of his tremendous re-imagining of the Kirk/Spock Star Trek. Familiar personae, situations and weapons will appear like covers or remixes, and meshed in with new storylines. This notice will be a safe space, incidentally, with a trigger warning only for basic plot points and material already in the public domain. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The stars talk on the red carpet at Monday’s LA premiere 
 
 The original movies were always based on the most extraordinary nexus of personal and family dysfunction: a motor of guilt, shame and conflict. Luke was driven by an increasingly complex Freudian animus against Darth Vader; Han Solo referred to the Millennium Falcon as “she”; male audiences were encouraged both to identify with Luke and to lech over Princess Leia in her outrageous gold slave bikini – and then, with exquisite narrative sadism, we were told they were brother and sister. All this agony is reborn in The Force Awakens: new contortions of fear and black-comic absurdity amidst the romance and excitement. 
 
 Luke has been famously absent from the poster for this film, which led me to fear at first that over the past 30 years, like Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, he had gone over to the dark side. Suffice it to say that Luke, played by a now grizzled Mark Hamill, is a potent but unwontedly enigmatic presence. 
 
 Hollywood awards expert predicts Oscars success for The Force Awakens Read more 
 
 Princess Leia is now a General and still the warrior queen of the resistance - a tougher and more grandmotherly figure. The dark force is resurgent in the form of the First Order, intent on re-establishing a more candidly fascist control, with quasi-Nuremberg rallies. Ranged against them are new fighters for good. There is Rey, a resourceful survivor on the remote planet of Jakku, who feels destiny within her: she is played by newcomer Daisy Ridley with the brittle determination of a young Keira Knightley. British actor John Boyega plays Finn, a former storm trooper who seeks redemption through betraying his evil masters. 
 
 This brings me to the terrific performance from Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, the new Dark Lord with a terrible secret. He is gorgeously cruel, spiteful and capricious – and unlike the Vader of old, he is given to petulant temper tantrums, with his lightsaber drawn, when uniformed subordinates have the unwelcome task of telling him of some new, temporary victory for the Resistance. Driver’s almost unreadably droll facial expression is very suited to Kylo Ren’s fastidious and amused contempt for his enemies’ weakness and compassion. There is a brilliant moment when he uses the telekinetic power of the Force against a laser shot. 
 
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 Star Wars: The Force Awakens – your interactive cheat sheet Read more 
 
 The lightsaber contests themselves are of course more athletic than in the 70s and 80s but also somehow more humanly interesting: Rey herself needs no condescending advice from men either on unarmed combat or flying the Millennium Falcon. 
 
 JJ Abrams has an instinctive sympathy for the classic Star Wars landscapes and lays them out with élan: the switch from galaxies to shadowy forests and of course vast rippling deserts. In almost her first appearance, Rey is seen tobogganing down a huge dune on a sled made of rope. For me it’s a reminder that though the first Star Wars was avowedly inspired by Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, I think it originally derived its look from David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia or even the dreamscapes of Dalí. 
 
 But of course this film is part of an entertainment world so huge it need refer only to itself. The Force Awakens does not, in the way of other franchises, feel the need to be “dark” – having of course repudiated the dark side. It basically powers along on a great surging riptide of idealism and optimism, that family-movie ethic which some have derided for killing off the dystopian tradition of sci-fi. In fact, Star Wars has now gone beyond the sci-fi genre to its own kind of intergalactic quasi-Arthurian romance: that and a return to the world of Saturday morning pictures. The Force Awakens is ridiculous and melodramatic and sentimental of course, but exciting and brimming with energy and its own kind of generosity. What a Christmas present. 
 
 Star Wars: The Force Awakens in-depth fan review: 'so much to obsess over' Read more 
 
 • Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released in the UK and Australia on 17 December and in the US on 18 December ||||| Director Rian Johnson and company started filming Episode VIII today in London, and not only have we already gotten an extremely tiny bit of new footage (all of it containing Luke Skywalker’s amazing Jedi face) we have the official cast list, including a few new names. 
 
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 The movie stars everyone you’d expect from The Force Awakens, plus this “Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, Academy Award nominee Laura Dern, and talented newcomer Kelly Marie Tran.” Not, of course, that we know anything about who’ll they are playing, but we can all always wildly speculate based on rumor. 
 
 Del Toro’s name has been attached to this movie for a while now. He’s supposed to be playing a villain. If he’s another First Order bad guy, he’ll be joining returning cast members Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. He could also be a villain unaligned with the First Order, like a Jabba-esque crime lord or a bounty hunter. 
 
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 We have no idea who Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran could be playing, but their casting could mean that the names we’d heard bandied about for a new female lead—Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), and others—were just rumors. 
 
 Here’s the announcement video, featuring the shocking news that the last scene of The Force Awakens will also appear in Episode VIII: 
 
 And the full announcement: 
 
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 Rey took her first steps into a larger world in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and will continue her epic journey with Finn, Poe, and Luke Skywalker in the next chapter of the continuing Star Wars saga, Star Wars: Episode VIII, which began principal photography at Pinewood Studios in London on February 15, 2016. Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is written and directed by Rian Johnson and continues the storylines introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, welcomes back cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. New cast members will include Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, Academy Award nominee Laura Dern, and talented newcomer Kelly Marie Tran. Star Wars: Episode VIII is produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski. Joining the production crew will be some of the industry’s top talent, including Steve Yedlin (Director of Photography), Bob Ducsay (Editor), Rick Heinrichs (Production Designer), Peter Swords King (Hair and Make-Up Designer), and Mary Vernieu (US Casting Director). They will be joining returning crew members Pippa Anderson (Co-Producer, VP Post Production), Neal Scanlan (Creature & Droid FX Creative Supervisor), Michael Kaplan (Costume Designer), Jamie Wilkinson (Prop Master), Chris Corbould (SFX Supervisor), Rob Inch (Stunt Coordinator), Ben Morris (VFX Supervisor), and Nina Gold (UK Casting Director). Star Wars: Episode VIII is scheduled for release December 15, 2017. 
 
 [Star Wars.com] ||||| If you feel a disturbance in the Force, it’s millions of voices suddenly crying out the new title of Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. 
 
 The reveal comes as the movie finishes its final day of shooting (with many more months of post-production to come). 
 
 Now the heavy-duty fans will weigh in, and their judgment tends to be far less forgiving than The Emperor or Darth Vader. The one thing we can all agree on is it beats the hell out of The Phantom Menace, and although it strikes a little close to the vanilla side, it may be reassuring to some who are glad the new trilogy is going tried-and-true rather than skewing campy, vague, or avant-garde. 
 
 It does raise one question: Has the Force been … slumbering? We certainly saw it help Luke Skywalker launch those proton torpedoes into the thermal exhaust port of the original Death Star, and as “Weird Al” Yankovic sang in his immortal Kinks spoof Yoda “I picked up a box / I lifted some rocks / While I stood on my head.” The Force was certainly at work there, right. And the Dark Side was getting a workout helping Darth Vader crush windpipes of the people who disappointed him. 
 
 But remember Han Solo dismissing talk of the Force with “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” Maybe this energy that binds the galaxy together has only been visible to a select few, while the denizens of the galaxy put their faith in the science and technology of interstellar travel? 
 
 Whatever the case, the Force is hitting the snooze button for now. We won’t know the full story until 13 months from now. 
 
 The cast and crew of the J.J. Abrams film already celebrated their wrap party last weekend, although sources told EW there were still a few days left before the cameras at Pinewood Studios outside London. The shoot — spanning from the deserts of Abu Dhabi to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England — was anything but smooth, having been thrown into crisis after Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford, broke his leg on set in an accident involving a falling door on the Millennium Falcon. 
 
 The set was also plagued by spoiler leaks — or was it? The flow of rumors and apparent concept images has been non-stop, but how much of it is accurate remains an open question. The grapevine got the title wrong, with some fan sites such as Ain’t It Cool News grabbing headlines by reporting that it had confirmed the film would be called The Ancient Fear. 
 
 Of course, Return of the Jedi was filmed under the fake title Blue Harvest, a common technique on high profile films to remain slightly more low-key. (The Avengers, for instance, was nicknamed Group Hug.) 
 
 The new Star Wars film, which picks up three decades after the events of Return of the Jedi, is headlined by original trilogy stars Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), with new additions including Lupita Nyong’o (the best supporting actress Oscar-winner from 12 Years a Slave) and Gwendoline Christie, the 6-foot-3 British actress best known as the female knight Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones. 
 
 Other new additions include Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), John Boyega (Attack the Block), newcomer Daisy Ridley, performance-capture maestro Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time), and the imperious Max von Sydow from The Exorcist. 
 
 Hype is already underway. C-3PO star Daniels recently tweeted this expectation-setter: 
 
 "No movie sequel is better than The Empire Strikes Back." You might eat those words for Xmas dinner in 2015. Joy & Indigestion to the world! — Anthony Daniels (@ADaniels3PO) November 3, 2014 
 
 Episode VII, er … The Force Awakens, produced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and veteran Abrams collaborator Bryan Burke, is set for release Dec. 18, 2015. 
 
 So do you like this title, or would you rather kiss a Wookiee? 
 
 Follow @breznican ||||| Published on Nov 28, 2014 
 
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 Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens Official Teaser Trailer #1 (2015) - J.J. Abrams Movie HD 
 
 
 
 Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens in theaters December 18, 2015. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, and features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. They will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. The film is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, and John Williams returns as the composer. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Episode VII in the Star Wars Saga 
 
 
 
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– The next Star Wars movie has an official title. Episode VII of the classic franchise will be titled Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney announced today on Facebook. The post also revealed that principal photography is now complete. The movie opens Dec. 18 of next year, USA Today reports, and very few other details are officially known other than the fact that it reportedly takes place three decades after Return of the Jedi. The cast was announced earlier this year, and in addition to old favorites (Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew), the movie will star Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow, and Lupita Nyong'o, plus a number of young, little-known actors. The original movies, of course, also featured a trio of relative unknowns, and USA Today speculates on the meaning of the title: "The fact that [the force is] 'awakening' could refer to the new characters the film will introduce." Entertainment Weekly notes that the title raises a question: "Has the Force been … slumbering? ... Maybe this energy that binds the galaxy together has only been visible to a select few, while the denizens of the galaxy put their faith in the science and technology of interstellar travel?" OK, so that may not tell us much, but at least one important person has high hopes for the new film: Daniels, perhaps better known as C-3PO, tweeted Sunday: "'No movie sequel is better than The Empire Strikes Back.' You might eat those words for Xmas dinner in 2015. Joy & Indigestion to the world!"