Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Monday is May 4th, and thanks to a punny 1979 London Evening News headline and a legion of die-hard fans, it’s known the world over as “Star Wars Day.”
The headline about the election of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations” — inspired a grassroots movement for Star Wars junkies to celebrate George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away.
The first such organized May the 4th celebration took place in Toronto, Canada in 2011, but thanks to December’s release of J.J. Abrams-directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens that debuted at last month’s Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, fandom is at a fever pitch this May 4.
Many of the new movie’s returning favorites, including Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew, and Anthony Daniels — better known as Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and C-3PO — joined Abrams and producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy at the confab.
“You guys grew up with us, so, so it’s an amazing thing to a part of so many people’s childhoods — and to be a toy at the same time,” Fisher said to laughs. “So thank you for playing with me when I’m plastic.”
Hamill called the fans more “family” than anything else, for keeping the faith all these years. He also joked how he once hoped the original blockbuster might out-gross Planet of the Apes. That it did, in spades.
Abrams said he’ll never forget seeing the Star Wars titles slam onto the screen for the first time, commenting it was the “first time a movie made me laugh that way, and made me believe in another world that way,” and explained, “it was really George Lucas’ brilliance not only creating these incredible characters and this amazing universe, but also that it, it, it had just heart, and the biggest thing for me is it had such hope.”
Kennedy explained there’s a “generational” appeal of the saga that is so important to the filmmakers behind the new trilogy and other Star Wars projects. She mentioned, “everybody has a Star Wars story.”
At Celebration Anaheim, they were also joined by some of the series’ new stars, including John Boyega and Daisy Ridley — who now can also be seen in a Vanity Fair cover story about the film, and in a photo spread shot by Annie Leibowitz, along with Harrison Ford, who was still recovering from his recent plane crash and unable to attend the expo.
Speaking of the photoshoot, an accompanying video gives some never-before-seen peeks at the movie, especially of Adam Driver, unmasked in his black Sith robes, and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o wearing a motion-capture suit, meaning she could be a partially computer-generated character.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opens Dec. 18. The film will be released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
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