First look at new action photos from 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

This winter, one of the greatest movie franchise of all time returns with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" scheduled for release on Dec. 18.

The film is projected to shatter the box office and make a run at eclipsing $2 billion in revenues. If everything goes well, the movie will pass "Avatar" as the highest-grossing film ever and help Star Wars pass "Lord of the Rings" and "James Bond" on the all-time global franchise box office rankings (it would still be third behind "Harry Potter" and Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is powered by the "Avengers" and "Iron Man" films).

Those projections are testament to the feverish army of Star Wars fans who just can't get enough of Luke Skywalker and Co.

To fuel that fire with four months left until the film's release, Entertainment Weekly released some brand new action photos from the movie. Anthony Breznican also has a fun piece with director J.J. Abrams discussing why he couldn't turn down the chance to lead the Skywalker character into this new era.

For all of you who love Star Wars and are counting down the weeks until release, here's a sampling of the new shots (check out EW's gallery and new issue for more).

Teddy Mitrosilis works in content production at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.