What’s On has the new Star Wars trailer, featuring Liwa Desert. Abu Dhabi doubled as Tatooine in scenes from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.


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The hugely anticipated first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is finally here, and with it, the first glimpse of how Abu Dhabi will feature in the blockbuster.

In fact, the 1m30s teaser opens with a wide shot of the Liwa Desert, before descending into a mix of imperial stormtroopers, battling X-Wings, and a lightsaber wielding sith lord. Best of all, the trailer closes with a shot of the iconic Millennium Falcon swooping low over the desert dunes, a sight that had the nerdier members of Team What’s On very excited.

Although it’s hard to tell exactly how the UAE capital will feature in the film, rumour has it that the desert represents Tatooine, which was the home planet of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy.

**PICTURES: Behind the scenes of the Abu Dhabi Star Wars set**

In general, the internet’s reaction to the trailer has been positive, with fans expressing A New Hope (geddit?) that director JJ Abrams will be able to breathe new life into the franchise. With the original main cast on board – Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) are all involved – and a promise to use more real models and less CGI than the rather dire prequels did, there’s every reason to believe that the force will be strong with these ones.

In fact, the main complaint about the teaser has been about the newly designed red lightsaber, which has a glowing laser crossguard. Some fans don’t think it measures up to the originals, and are adamant that the crossguard would end up burning the hand of any sith lord unlucky enough to wield it. There’s no pleasing some people, we guess.