Awakens

The name of the latest Star Wars movie is The Force Awakens. Which is to say, it includes a cognate of Awakening.

Which probably wouldn't have mattered much except for a recent meme about Mark Hamill (Boomer, 1951), who is now 63 - as old as Alec Guinness (G.I., 1914) was when the original Star Wars movie was released.  As a member of a Prophet archetype generation, it makes even more sense for him to take on a role like that of Obi-Wan Kenobi, i.e. the old and wise mentor to the new Hero.

In Generations, the original movie is mentioned as an example of the generational breakdown that is common in Hero stories: Young adult Hero (Luke, plus of course Leia), slightly older practical scoundrel Nomad (Han Solo), and wise elder mentor Prophet (Obi-Wan). The further implication of this grouping is that it's a Crisis period, that being how the generations show up in a Fourth Turning. The apocalyptic expectations of the first movie, with a planet-destroying weapon under the control of leaders willing to use it, supports this interpretation.

Something closer to how a Crisis-era battle would appear.

While this view is weakened by the first two sequels, it's the prequels that show a real Crisis war enveloping the galaxy. There are multiple hostile combatant groups, involved with massive armies and no clear view of how it can end up well - and, indeed, the resolution isn't in favor of the good guys. The focus is on Anakin/Vader, the villain of the series - so quite possibly a Nomad archetype, himself. The idea that the minor skirmishes of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor are the "real" Crisis doesn't stand up in comparison with these massive conflagrations. With that in mind, Empire and Jedi appear as Second Turning, not the Fourth, with the spiritual Force returning to prominence after being nearly extinguished by Palpatine. Luke goes from hotshot Hero, succeeding through the sacrifice of Kenobi, to warrior-priest Prophet, prevailing over the Emperor through sheer moral superiority.

Which brings us to this trailer and the upcoming film, which has the potential either to move the cycles around again, or to confirm one interpretation over the other. As it is including the original characters played by the original actors, it's presumably going to be set about forty years after the Rebellion's success.  If Endor was the peak of the Awakening, we would now be back into a Crisis; if a Crisis, we would be in Awakening again.

If The Force Awakens is a Second Turning story - as suggested by the title and the first movie - it would likely involve a spiritual component, which could be expected to involve the "awakening" Force. Perhaps someone has rejected the vanilla goody-goody Jedi way that Luke has been teaching. No doubt Luke accepts only the purest form of Yoda's lessons, having experienced firsthand the potential dangers of a more open interpretation. Naturally, an apostate breeds followers, although they would be limited by the rarity of Force-sensitivity. The protagonists may be taking on a smaller (and therefore individually more powerful) enemy group, and deciding through their actions the direction of the Republic going forward.

The existing movies, on the other hand, mostly indicate that this should represent a Fourth Turning. If so, the time since the Rebellion's success has been one of uncertainty, perhaps even chaos.  The Force-sensitive, lacking any guidance for a generation after the Palpatine's original success, may be a different sort of threat, a critical mass of proto-Vaders attempting to use their powers based on what they can teach themselves. Enough time has passed for a counter-rebellion to be in the planning stages, so that the former Rebels have to prepare, already, to defend what little they have managed to pull back together.  The combatants on either side, as in the prequels, are likely to be large armies involved in massive battles.

That's the prediction, anyway, all written before viewing the trailer, shown below:

And: The fourth word spoken in the trailer is "Awakening." There are specific references to the Light and the Dark sides. A non-clone in a stormtrooper uniform appears to be having an internal struggle. The battles shown are smaller, not apocalyptic.

Looks like a Second Turning story.