It’d be ridiculous to describe an image from a movie that is still months away from being released, and which has only existed in trailer form for a few months, as “iconic.” But that shot of the fallen Star Destroyer on a desert planet that sets up exactly what the universe of Star Wars: The Force Awakens looks like? It’s pretty iconic.
And now you can get a look at it from all angles. Facebook today launched 360 video on the platform, and to introduce the feature, they’ve got an exclusive promotional video in partnership with Star Wars and Disney, in which viewers can get an immersive look at that shot just by clicking and dragging as it plays and panning around the landscape. Right now, the video is only interactive on a desktop or Android phone, with iPhones coming soon–but it’s worth rushing to a laptop to get a look at the planet Jakku as it appears from the back of the speeder bike driven by Daisy Ridley’s Force Awakens character, Rey. (Or, as Facebook chief product officer Charlie Cox put it in a quote, “I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know what that means.”)
The video is Star Wars-themed, because what isn’t these days, but it’s also not all that Facebook’s 360 videos will be used for–Cox announced they’ll be partnering with outlets like the Discovery Channel (for shark-themed videos, naturally) and Vice, working with personalities like LeBron James and the cast of Saturday Night Live, and also making the format accessible to anyone who wants to create 360 content themselves in the very near future. All of which is pretty exciting–but maybe not as thrilling as that downed Star Destroyer.
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