In 1977, a movie made by filmmaker George Lucas changed everything. Star Wars: A New Hope showed audiences that magic was real. It showcased impressive visual achievements at the time, ranging from Luke Skywalker seeing the sunset (with two suns!) in Tatooine, lightsaber duels and blowing up the Death Star. Because of tech limits, these battles were not as well choreographed as the ones in the prequel movies are. Still, they amazed 70s theater audiences and changed the movie industry to say the least. George Lucas created a legacy that is still heavily felt today and fans celebrate all the achievements of the franchise every May 4th, which is the informal commemorative date for Star Wars Day. So, how did this date come to be? Why is it so important to fans and how can you celebrate it?
Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. On May 4th of that year, her political party put up an advertisement on the news saying: “May the Fourth be with You Maggie. Congratulations.” The pun was a joke with the famous movie quote: “May the Force be with You.” Fans of the franchise loved it so much that they took it upon themselves to make May 4th be Star Wars Day. So for more than 40 years, people around the world have celebrated the commemorative date in different ways.
Unlike how some people may think, the Star Wars franchise is not only about movies. There are countless books covering parts of the endless universe that George created, although not all of them are good. Lucasfilm made the classic show Clone Wars, which Disney wrapped up when they bought the franchise and picked up the canceled project. Disney has also made many other shows, such as The Mandalorian and Andor, both great in their own ways and exploring different parts of the fictional world. There are also many games, like the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) Star Wars The Old Republic and EA’s Battlefront. They also cover different corners of this vast universe and have completely different gameplay mechanics, the first being a turn-based online RPG and the second being a Call of Duty style game, but in the Star Wars world.
So if you are a fan of this huge universe that George Lucas created, how can you celebrate May 4th? Well, with the May SAT being on May 4th as well, many students at FM probably will not have much free time on the day. If you are taking the exam or do not have much time for any other reason, you can still celebrate Star Wars Day. Tales of The Empire, an animated show similar to the 2023 Tales of The Jedi, will be released with all its episodes on May 4th. Since each of them has a roughly 20 minute runtime, watching Tales of The Empire will be a great, quick way to commemorate the event. Similarly, watching an old episode of Clone Wars or Rebels would also take the same amount of time.
If you are a fan with more time on your hands and would like to have a bigger celebration, there is always the classic movie marathon. If you plan on watching only the original six movies (as every fan knows, the Disney sequels do not exist) and skipping Rogue One and Solo, the marathon should take about 13 hours with no intervals. Although being a very big time commitment, it is a possible scenario if you are that big of a Star Wars fan and plan ahead. In the middle ground, you could watch a single movie, a 40-50 minute episode of one of the Disney shows or play for some time on one of the games. Alternatively, if you are not a solo Star Wars fan, and have a few willing friends to celebrate with you, you could come up with your own, fun experience like a trivia game that has questions from all the corners of the vast fictional universe.
No matter how big of a fan you are or how much time you have, there is definitely a way to celebrate Star Wars Day. Be it watching a 20 minute episode, doing a 13 hour movie marathon or hanging out with fellow Star Wars fans, the celebration is certain to be a ton of fun. Being one day away, May the 4th be with you, FM!