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'Star Wars: Episode VII': X-wing glimpsed in a new J.J. Abrams video

'Star Wars: Episode VII' director J.J. Abrams was recently featured in a new video discussing the fundraiser 'Star Wars: Force for Change,' and Abrams was seen standing in front of the familiar X-wing starfighter from the original films. 'Star Wars: Episode VII' is scheduled to be released in December 2015.

  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

“Star Wars” fans caught a glimpse of an X-wing starfighter in a new video starring “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams that promoted the fundraiser “Star Wars: Force for Change.” 

“Force for Change” kicked off in May and benefits UNICEF Innovation Labs and Programs. It asks fans to donate $10 or more to qualify to pop up in the seventh “Star Wars” film and visit the London set. It raised more than $1 million in its first 24 hours, so in the new video, Abrams added another reward: a screening of the movie a week before its world debut for the winner and his or her friends. The fundraiser will conclude on July 25. 

“We know how much ‘Star Wars’ means to so many of you, and we’d love to share the movie with you first while supporting this truly great cause,” Abrams says during the video. 

As Abrams spoke during the video, it was slowly revealed that he was standing in front of an X-wing starfighter, the spacecraft used by Luke Skywalker and other Rebel pilots in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. A pilot walks by Abrams during the video and asks him to move so he can get into the spacecraft.

Also glimpsed in the video is an MSE-6-series repair droid (a "mouse" droid), which fans might remember from the original 1977 film – the droid is seen on board the original Death Star. 

Other prizes up for grabs as part of the fundraiser “Force” include the hilt of a lightsaber, movie stills from “Episode VII,” and a movie script signed by Abrams (sent after the movie's release date).

“Episode VII” is slated to be released on Dec. 18, 2015 and the cast includes “Star Wars” original stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker as well as actors new to the film franchise like Gwendoline Christie of “Game of Thrones,” “12 Years a Slave” actress Lupita Nyong’o, “Girls” actor Adam Driver, and Andy Serkis of “The Lord of the Rings,” among others. 

Check out the full video with Abrams.

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