Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer: Watch the 88-second teaser that finally hit YouTube and iTunes

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“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?”

The 88-second teaser trailer for JJ Abram’s Star Wars episode is finally here.

And it appears the rumours about the return of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: The Force Awakens were true (*squeal!*).

The sand dunes, Storm Troopers and the Siths are back. We see the first glimpse of Daisy Ridley wearing a rather fetching headdress.

John Boyega appears as a sweaty Storm Trooper without his helmet on.

A hooded figure, probably the next Sith uber lord, wields a lightsaber in a shady woodland as the triumphant music peaks and a sinister voice intones: “The darkness, and the light.”

Episode VII will pick up thirty years after the events of George Lucas’ Return of the Jedi in 1983. That movie ended with Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker’s death, Leia being revealed as Luke’s sister and Han Solo finally getting together with Princess Leia.

Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill and Peter Mayhew are all returning for the new movie which is scheduled for release on 18 December 2015.

The trailer's arrival online comes after a U-turn by Disney which initially announced it would debut the first teaser exclusively in 30 cinemas in America and Canada.

But a storm of interest and complaints from fans prompted the company, which bought Lucasfilm in a deal worth £2.5bn in 2012, to cave and publish the first look trailer on iTunes and YouTube too.