“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?” 10 years ago, Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ first teaser trailer all the more impressive.

Released by Lucasfilm on November 28, 2014, the first The Force Awakens teaser was a masterclass in, well, teasing. After a build-up stage - from the shock of Star Wars movies can match.

The Force Awakens' First Teaser Was The First Time Star Wars Had Returned For Me As An Adult

Episode VII Was About Bringing Star Wars Back

I am very much a classic millennial Star Wars fan, who grew up watching the original trilogy on repeat in the 1990s. I can still my glorious gold-and-black VHS box set (and wish I still had it), and obsessively playing with figures that would be worth a lot more money if I’d kept them in the packaging, but have far less sentimental value. I never cared much for the prequels - and still don’t - but, like many Star Wars fans of that time, the OT was an obsession that never really went away, but certainly dulled as I discovered new interests.

The Force Awakens - and it really started with the teaser - was the first time Star Wars had fully returned for me as an adult. Things are rarely the same through an adult lens compared to a child’s one, for better or worse, but that teaser felt like being transported back in time almost 20 years. It reawakened that sense of wonder, that love, and ultimately that obsession. While Star Wars had been a huge part of my life as a kid and teenager, it hadn’t quite so much as an adult… until that moment.

The Force Awakens' Trailer Led To A Year Of Incredible Excitement & Theorizing

The Star Wars Speculation Went To A Whole New Level

There’s really not a lot to The Force Awakens’ teaser trailer. J.J. Abrams loves his secrecy anyway, but this was still over a year away from release. It’s barely even footage, and nonetheless, it’s an incredibly exciting hint of what’s to come. A Stormtrooper hero? A mysterious girl! I can still being more than a little shocked when the masked villain’s lightsaber was revealed to be a crossguard one; and even more so, cheering, my heart soaring, when the Millennium Falcon itself soared into the sky, John Williams’ music right there with it.

Aside from the oh-so-comforting sense of nostalgia, and the emotional feeling that Star Wars was back, what this really drove us into was, for me, the most purely fun time to be a Star Wars fan that I’ve known as an adult.

Aside from the oh-so-comforting sense of nostalgia, and the emotional feeling that Star Wars was back, what this really drove us into was, for me, the most purely fun time to be a fan that I’ve known as an adult. It led to over a year of theorizing and speculation, which ran completely wild at times (let’s not forget things like “Luke Skywalker is Kylo Ren” and “Darth Vader is back from the dead” were popular theories even close to release, although I guess in hindsight of Emperor Palpatine’s return, that second one isn’t too out there...).

Abrams’ love of mystery boxes purposefully played into this, and while some of the speculation was inherently silly, it was also just damn enjoyable. 2015 was the year I fully started writing about movies for a living, just a few months after this teaser dropped, and I can still conversations about the movie damn-near every single day (mostly with Alex Leadbeater, now Screen Rant’s Content Director!), and somehow almost a decade later I'm still writing about it.

Theories don’t make a movie good, of course (and caused problems later down the line), but the theories were good and fun because the movie looked good and fun. The glimpses of Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, et al were incredibly tantalizing, the teases of plot we did get were thrilling. It made you excited; it made you - or at least, me - want to talk about it. To feel giddy while obsessing over every single detail, which is one of the joys of being a fan of a franchise like this.

If there’s any part of the Disney era that I’m already nostalgic for, it’s that feeling, because it’s the same feeling Star Wars gives as a kid, and is what it’s all about.

The year or so from the first teaser through to release is the most energized, excited, and unified (or as close as it can possibly get) I can really the Star Wars fandom being. There was just an absurd level of hype around it, and while the movies didn’t entirely deliver and that feeling would wane, wasn’t it nice while it lasted? If there’s any part of the Disney era that I’m already nostalgic for, it’s that feeling, because it’s the same feeling Star Wars gives as a kid, and is what it’s all about.

Star Wars Movies Couldn't Match The Pre-Release Hype

The Sequel Trilogy Was Inevitably Disappointing

Unfortunately, Star Wars: The Force Awakens couldn’t live up to the hype. In fairness, what movie could? It’s an unreasonable expectation - I can that moment, between “a long time ago…” and the opening crawl, where there was just a silent anticipation, as probably the most excited and nervous I’ve ever been in a movie theater, so of course anything that came after wouldn’t be what everyone wanted. But, to The Force Awakens’ vast credit, it came close.

"Abrams and his team create the sort of Star Wars movie that OT fans have been hoping for, while taking the sort of restrained approach to utilizing current film technology, in a way that many detractors of the prequels wish Lucas had." - Screen Rant's Star Wars: The Force Awakens review.

Yes, some of the sheen has worn off now, and it’s even clearer to see how it’s just a beat-for-beat remake of the original Star Wars beneath that glossy surface. Similarly, it’s possible to look back at this and see how Abrams’ mystery boxes didn’t contain enough substance for the future installments, which for me is the biggest factor in Star Wars: The Last Jedi becoming so controversial, not Rian Johnson’s decisions.

The sequel era as a whole is defined by being disted, divisive, and disappointing, which is somewhat warranted, but not completely. It’s at once held back by movies that were overly ambitious or not ambitious enough. But there’s a lot of good there, too, especially in its new characters like Rey, for which credit should go back to The Force Awakens' cast and Abrams. For me, the sequels have one good movie (TFA), one great movie (The Last Jedi, though I understand a lot of the criticisms), and one disaster (The Rise of Skywalker, though even that had some good ideas).

Still, I can’t be too disappointed when looking back on the era as a whole. No, it will never be the original trilogy for me, and it was never going to be, because that’s the difference between watching something as a kid vs. being an adult. But for a generation, the sequels will be to them what the OT was to me, and that’s pretty damn cool.

Star Wars needs new generations of fans and, ultimately, to grow far beyond those first three movies. But, more than that, for those 88 seconds or so in the first teaser, and for many more moments in the year after (“Chewie, we’re home” still makes me a bit emotional), Star Wars brought back that feeling, which I’d never expected it to do.

Can Star Wars Movies Ever Recapture That Sense Of Magic?

The Mandalorian & Grogu Will Be The Next Movie To Try

There are several Star Wars movies, aiming to get the franchise back (again) as a cinematic force, years after The Rise of Skywalker ended the Skywalker saga. By the time The Mandalorian and Grogu releases, it’ll have been over a decade since The Force Awakens, and it has a similarly tall order. I don’t doubt it will be a success; that fans new and old will once again go gaga for Grogu. But will it be the same feeling when that teaser drops?

The Mandalorian and Grogu is the only officially dated Star Wars movie, but Disney does also have December 17, 2027 staked out for another release.

Probably not. Firstly, expectations are different: we know who these characters are, for the most part, so it’s not as new. But I also think too much has happened since in the fandom, which has grown more divided and, in small parts, more toxic, which makes it difficult to imagine something like that year after The Force Awakens’ teaser.

That’s a shame, but also, it’s fine if it doesn’t feel the same. The Force Awakens’ marketing was like lightning in a bottle, because it’s rare to have something that makes you feel like a kid again when you’re an adult, you have bills to pay, your lower back hurts, your knees hurt, everything hurts, okay? And I think part of the problem with the reception to Star Wars is expecting that feeling. A sense of entitlement that it should cater only to fans who grew up with the original trilogy, that they know what Star Wars is or should be more than anyone else, when that’s absolutely not the case.

I hope I love The Mandalorian and Grogu, Rey’s New Jedi Order movie, and everything else planned that Lucasfilm may or may not ever actually deliver on. But I also hope it gives other, newer, younger fans that same feeling Star Wars: The Force Awakens did for me. That feeling that Star Wars is pure magic, and it has been awakened once again.