Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer inspires spoofs

Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer has amassed more than 40 million YouTube views in 72 hours.

The newly released trailer has also inspired a series of spoofs, including a “George Lucas edition”, which pokes fun at the director’s poorly received prequels.

The parody – viewed nearly four million times – was created by Michael Shanks and is cluttered with extra CGI and a voice-over about trade negotiations.

A Lego version of the trailer appeared within 24 hours of the original.

Pieced together brick by brick and shot by shot, the video recreates shots of a rolling R2 droid and the Millennium Falcon.

The animator also comes up with an ingenious way of replicating the new three-pronged lightsaber.

It has so far been seen two million times.

A third parody takes aim at director JJ Abrams, who has been hired to oversee the renewal of the sci-fi franchise.

Noting his fondness for lens flare (the director took the unusual step of apologizing for over-using the effect in his Star Trek films) it adds glaring reflections to every shining surface in the trailer.

The official teaser trailer – the first look at a film that is not out for another year – has generated reams of media coverage.

It opens with a simple shot of the desert and a mysterious voice (now confirmed to be Andy Serkis) intoning: “There has been an awakening.”

John Boyega then bursts cartoonishly into frame, wearing the suit of a Storm Trooper.

We also see newcomer Daisy Ridley as the film’s heroine and Oscar Isaac as an X-Wing pilot, as well as a long tracking shot of the Millennium Falcon.

The seventh episode of the Star Wars universe, The Force Awakens is due for release in December 2015.