As someone with a fondness for puns, it delights me that May 4 is officially Star Wars Day, a celebration marked, this year, by a theatrical re-release of The Phantom Menace, the film that revived the franchise in cinemas after a sixteen-year hiatus. Which takes me back to – gasp – 25 years ago…
It was in the spring of 1999 that soon-to-be ten-year-old me first became acquainted with Star Wars. The first contact occurred in a toy store, where a range of action figures was promoting the upcoming release of The Phantom Menace as well as the older trilogy, freshly available on Special Edition VHS. These figures promised epic adventures in space, but I wasn’t particularly hyped for the return of a film series I had never heard of until then. My most anticipated movie that year? Toy Story 2 (ironically, my first experience of the “I am your father” scene).
The marketing remained active at full speed all through the summer (the movie didn’t open everywhere at once, as is now customary for these blockbusters; back then, living in Italy came with having to wait until September), including the publication of what cemented my decision to skip the film: the comic book adaptation. Suffice it to say, I had little desire to hear Jar Jar Binks on the screen after reading his dialogue in speech bubble form.
But the galaxy far far away was not about to give up that easily: around the same time the new film opened in cinemas in my neck of the woods, The Empire Strikes Back aired on TV (for whatever reason, the original Star Wars was out of rotation at the time; I didn’t see it until 2004), and I was won over within seconds.
A VHS viewing of Return of the Jedi followed soon after at a friend’s house, although the prequel(s) still didn’t quite have what it took to convince me to make the trek to a dark screening room: my first cinema visit for one of these came in 2005, when Revenge of the Sith promised to close the book on the saga for good.
That viewing is what turned me into a legit fan of the universe George Lucas created, and with the exception of the Clone Wars movie, I haven’t missed a new Star Wars film in the cinema since that fateful afternoon in May 2005.
And while I’m not entirely sold on some of the projects slated for release (the Mandalorian movie is the biggest question mark, for various reasons), I remain curious to see how that galaxy will continue to evolve as it embraces new generations of viewers. Because somewhere, right now, other soon-to-be ten-year-olds are probably experiencing their first encounter with these characters, concepts and endless storytelling possibilities. May the 4th be with them. Always.