“There’s been awakening. Have you felt it?” From that sentence on, the tone for the STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS trailer had been set. Things were about to get very dark, but they’d also seem a lot more familiar to fans of the franchise than the first three episodes that George Lucas helmed a little over a decade ago. So who was it that spoke those lines with such sinister perfection?

Many online speculators assumed that it was Max von Sydow or even Benedict Cumberbatch — though he has no known connection to this new film at all. Well, the short-lived mystery has been solved thanks to Collider‘s Steven Weintraub. Turns out that voice actually belongs to the very busy Andy Serkis, best known for his roles as Gollum in THE LORD OF THE RINGS series and Caesar in the new PLANET OF THE APES films. Drew McWeeny of Hitfix confirmed the news, adding that the versatile star will be “playing a pivotal role in the film, although he will not have a lot of screen time.”

Expect plenty of news regarding STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS over the coming year as the film doesn’t hit theaters until December 2015. In the meantime, here’s the trailer again:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzfutCUKqQM