It started with a simple little space movie. George Lucas decided if the powers that be wouldn’t let him make a Flash Gordon film, he’d create his own Flash Gordon – named  Luke Starkiller, later to be known as Luke Skywalker.

After proving himself with the nostalgic hit and coming of age movie American Graffiti, Lucas hoped his sprawling space opera would at least break even so he could maybe make a low-budget sequel.

Early cuts of the film brought varied praise and criticism to Lucas – from a couple hundred cautiously excited fans at the tiny San Diego Comic Con in 1976 to Lucas’ film school buddies who almost all panned it, but, as true friends do, offering to help fix it.

Movie theater owners had to be forced to accept it for a couple of weekends, packaged with higher profile films.

But on May 25, 1977, Star Wars changed the entire world. Those of us old enough remember lines around the block, toys that had to be pre-ordered, and countless conversations about the mixing of religious ideas (thanks to Lucas’ adherence to Joseph Campbell’s work) that created The Force of Star Wars.

Then… Why May 4^th?

When a film stays in theaters continuously for a year and changes not only movie going, but the very face of pop culture across the world, it’s called a phenomenon. And of course, the catch phrase for said phenomenon is bound to catch on.

Much like the 5^th of May has transformed from the date of Mexican independence to a week-long party of cerveza and tacos, even before the second Star Wars movie (The Empire Strikes Back) hit theaters, ‘May the Force be with you’ had become almost ubiquitous. It wasn’t a far stretch to flip it sideways with the pun, ‘May the Fourth be with you’ – which first appeared in a British newspaper, congratulating newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Strangely, it took until nearly the third trilogy of films for Lucasfilm to rebrand the pun-nish variation as an official company holiday. On May 4, 2011, the Toronto Underground Cinema presented the first organized celebration of Star Wars Day.

But it wasn’t until the Walt Disney Corporation purchased Lucasfilm, including all of the Star Wars properties, in 2012 that it became official. Beginning in 2013, Star Wars Day was an official holiday at all Disney parks, and has been used almost every year as a special date to release new details, teasers, and trailers of films, TV shows, books, cartoons and more all related to Star Wars.

Enduring Legacy 

Of course, Star Wars now is more than just a little film at the cineplex in 1977. Multiple generations of filmgoers and content devourers have adopted Star Wars as their own – from the OG film that would be renamed, “Episode IV: A New Hope” to having its own section on Disney+ with The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi making their mark on episodic shows, with Ahsoka and more to come. Today, on May 4^th, several theaters across the country are showing Return of the Jedi for its 40^th anniversary.

Probably the most enduring element is, of course The Force. Even when Jedi aren’t around, “It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” The Force has been coopted and explained by nearly every major religion on the planet in some form or fashion. It’s become a tool for psychologists and teachers; even atheists give it its due.

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