Star Powered Wars.

The new Star Wars trailer dropped this week.  Everyone went nuts.  It’s a neat trailer to a highly-anticipated addition to a beloved sci-fi movie series (I loathe calling anything creative a “franchise”) and it’s no surprise that millions of dollars in tickets have already been sold.  But I’m among those who are having trouble getting too excited, because I remember this happening before.

I was in college when a new Star Wars movie was announced.  I watched the trailer dozens of times with my friends, gathered around our monitors, collectively losing our minds when that iconic fanfare blared through the speakers or the flash of a lightsaber illuminated the screen.  This wasn’t fan fiction, novelizations, or the idle dreams of nerds on a tabletop roleplaying game.  This was Star Wars presented in the form that introduced us to that galaxy far, far away.  A new movie.  We got our hands on opening-night tickets weeks in advance.  We went to the theater in a large group and celebrated the rebirth of our beloved sci-fi adventure.

That was everything I experienced leading up to The Phantom Menace.  I’m worried others will suffer similar heartbreak, if for no other reason than the internet hype machine is far more powerful now than when I was in college.

If you’re going crazy for the new Star Wars, I implore you to proceed with caution.  As someone who went nuts years ago for new Star Wars and got the prequels, I’m worried that I’m seeing history repeat itself.  I hope that I’m wrong.  I really do.  The original Star Wars trilogy filled me with such wonder and excitement that I still get chills thinking about its various iconic moments.  I want that wonder and awe again, but my nerd heart remembers the hurt it’s felt in the past, and is urging me to not get too excited.

Back then, I had such high expectations for Darth Maul.