May the Fourth Be With You Celebrated By 'Star Wars' Fans

Star Wars fans celebrated May the Fourth Be With You on Saturday, May 4 with the building excitement for the upcoming production of Episode VII.

It has been years since Star Wars fans had this much to be excited about on the annual holiday for the sci-fi film franchise. Last October, when Disney announced that they were purchasing Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, it was immediately revealed that the merger would lead to an Episode VII.

Actor Anthony Daniels, the voice of C3PO, is just as excited as the fans. “I read about it daily, I stare at the phone with the orange dot, waiting, hoping for it to the ring,” the actor told the New York Daily News.“It was a total surprise to me,” said Daniels about the existence of the Star Wars holiday.

“A friend of mine who owns a comic book store in Stratford-Upon-Avon, you know, the home of Shakespeare. Finally, I get to appear on Stratford-Upon-Avon because he said, 'May the Fourth.' I said, ‘What do you mean May the Fourth?’ And he said, ‘May the Fourth Be With You.’ Ahhh. I’m going to go and join him for the day and meet fans. I had no idea.”

“Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone dressed up for May the Fourth,” added Daniels. “If it was not a dress-down day at work, everybody could come as their favorite Star Wars character. Imagine the streets of New York peopled with Vaders and Jedi and princesses and indeed robots, of course.” Yesterday, the New York Jedis, comprised of 200 light-saber fighters, performed at Ripley's Believe It Or Not in Times Square.

New York Jedi founder, Flynn, an AV installation designer, felt this year was a big one for Star Wars fans. “Our class has been a litmus test,” said Flynn. “Things were dying down last year to the point where I was thinking of discontinuing the classes, and then all of a sudden the announcement hit that Disney was making more Star Wars movies. And people started coming to the classes again.”

May the Fourth Be With You was founded in 2011.