Star Wars

For a guy whose entire acting career has been overshadowed by one role he played decades ago, Mark Hamill’s got a pretty good attitude. He loves Star Wars, and what’s more, he loves how much the people who love Star Wars love Star Wars. A regular fixture at conventions and other fan events, Hamill regularly gets in on the fun and mingles with his adoring public. And in a new video from Lucasfilms’ charity arm Force for Change, he gives a handful of diehard devotees the surprise of their lives.

When Lucasfilm initially announced Star Wars: Episode IX, the tentative plan was to release it in theaters on May 23, 2019 — that date was never confirmed, however, and when the studio shifted their releases to December (with the exception of the young Han Solo spinoff), everyone just assumed that it was only a matter of time before Episode IX’s release date was changed, too. That’s definitely not the case, as Disney and Lucasfilm have announced a metric Jabba-ton of new release dates, officially confirming the final film in their Star Wars trilogy for May 24, 2019.

For a franchise about slightly sketchy space crooks and intergalactic military types, the Star Wars films are almost conspicuously free of profanity. It makes sense from a business perspective — keeping the series PG-13 ensures that it’ll be open to a wider array of viewers — and yet the absence of cussing feels especially noticeable in a movie starring the famously coarse-tongued Carrie Fisher. The closest the series came to a four-letter word was Han Solo getting dissed as a “scruffy nerf-herder,” but a recently discovered cache of lost footage from the original 1977 Star Wars is going to change all that in short order.

For those of us who are old enough to remember the original Star Wars trilogy in its initial release, the fact that this May 25 marks the 40th anniversary of the first film’s release is absolutely staggering. (Want to feel old? This is what Darth Vader looked like 40 years ago.)

Star Wars Celebration is set to kick off in just a few days, and with the 40th anniversary of the iconic franchise on the horizon, fans are expecting this year’s festivities to be extra special — but it looks like we won’t have to wait until later this week for major news from a galaxy far, far away. Good Morning America is teasing a big Star Wars announcement for tomorrow’s episode, but what could it possibly be? The first teaser for The Last Jedi? A revelation about one of your favorite characters?

It’s been a few months since the world lost Carrie Fisher, and while many would prefer to expand the conversation to her accomplishments outside of the Star Wars universe, plenty of people are anxiously wondering how her death might affect her character in the upcoming Star Wars sequels. For some, this can be viewed as a tacky approach to celebrity, but there’s a sweeter side to things as well. Leia Organa remains an icon for people around the world; finding an appropriate way to say goodbye to her character will be, in essence, the way many Star Wars fans say goodbye to Fisher herself.

Mark Hamill, like many stars who enjoy sharing glimpses of the days before they finally made it big, enjoys posting the occasional photo or two from the sets of Star Wars. Just a few days ago, he shared what might very well be the first ever photo taken of Luke Skywalker in costume out in the middle of the Tunisian desert. Today, another early photo of himself as the young Jedi was unearthed, and Hamill pointed out that Lucasfilm was not keen on letting the public see it for years.

You can claim that the true star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was Rey or Finn or Kylo Ren. Or you could go with one of the old guard characters like General Leia or Han Solo. But you would be wrong. The true star of Force Awakens was BB-8. Period. End of discussion. He was the best.

A remarkable thing happened in movie theaters in the winter and spring of 1997. For six out of seven straight weekends, the top slot at the domestic box office was held by an old movie.

Without knowing the scope of Carrie Fisher’s role in the upcoming Star Wars sequels, it’s difficult to speculate about how Lucasfilm might address her recent passing. But a new report has uncovered key details (and potential spoilers) regarding General Leia’s narrative arc in Episodes VIII and IX, and reveals that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is planning to meet with director Colin Trevorrow next week to contemplate their options for Leia’s role in the forthcoming sequels.