Major speculation ahead, but a Star Wars fansite is claiming that this GIF of the Millennium Falcon might be the first-ever bit of footage from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What do you think?
The GIF was originally spotted and uploaded at Making Star Wars. There are no details on where it came from, or how they got it. All they are implying is that this could be a cut from the much whispered-about Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser trailer that has been rumored to premiere sometime before the end of the year. In fact Slashfilm is now reporting from "good sources" that the teaser trailer "will be shown in a limited number of theaters during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend." WHAAAAAAT!
But until then, we must speculate. The appearance of this GIF online coincides with the rumor (from Badass Digest) that the first Star Wars: Episode 7 teaser trailer would end with the Millennium Falcon "firing blasters, coming right at the camera." And that is exactly what this GIF is. Then again, a GIF like this would be very easy to fake. The lens flare feels almost too obvious and the CG looks a little "meh," so we're leaning towards no, but it would be cool if it was the real deal. Then again, again, as Making Star Wars points out, the creators of this mysterious footage did get the radar replacement dish right (see below). So these people know their shit. And we can't really judge FX on a tiny little GIF that we've stretched out (original GIF here).
UPDATE: Commenter KLR_Steve dropped this picture that is allegedly from Star Wars: Episode 7 set. Note the rectangular radar dish. (Apologies if my previous version of this story was confusing, it has been edited for clarification). This "new" radar dish is rectangular. The original dish was circular, but it was also knocked off at the end of the films. So the original radar dish would have to be replaced, and maybe it was replaced by a rectangular version?
Compared to the old model:
And you've all seen the official release of J.J. Abrams' version of the Falcon in a video so beautiful it will make you cry, but alas no radar reveal in this video. So make with the speculating people, we want to know. Real or fake?