Chicago College Students Buzzing After Release Of New Star Wars Trailer
(CBS) -- Star Wars fans have been waiting for the explosive new trailer for Star Wars Episode Seven: The Force Awakens.
It gives us a hint of what to expect when the sequel storms the big screens in December, though it reveals very little plot. CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports that hasn't stopped millions from watching it online as they travel to a galaxy far, far away.
From the computer screens of Columbia College they can feel the force.
The trailer for the latest edition in the Star Wars saga debuted at halftime on Monday Night Football and within minutes millions more were watching it online.
The trailer had 12 million hits in a matter of hours.
"I am surprised there wasn't more," said film student Anthony Torrecilla. "That's like the one time nerds are gonna watch football. That's the only time I turned on ESPN in my whole life."
Columbia is home to one of the nation's leading film schools, a natural place for a critique of the phenomenon
"I think Star Wars is just kind of part of our culture," said media grad student Thea Baldwin. "It's something people treat almost like kind of like a religion."
"It's throwing me back to my childhood and that's what they are going for that nostalgia feel," said Torrecilla.
Less reliant on computer generated graphics, there's praise too for director J.J. Abrams' take on the Star Wars universe.
"I'm also really, really excited to see that two of the main characters are black and a female," said junior Emily Waters.
When it was televised last night, it was tweeted about 17,000 times every minute. It's now been tweeted over a million more times since then.
On Facebook, 1.3 million people have had 2.1 million interactions since the trailer became available, but the force won't really be with us until the film's debut December 18.
