Today is the tenth anniversary of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Kudos to David Tree and team for putting on the closest thing to an official celebration of the fifth highest grossing film worldwide, earlier this month in Fordingbridge – because, where else?
On stage in this photo are Lucasfilm Creative Exec, Pablo Hidalgo and Creatures & Droids FX Creative Supervisor, Neil Scanlan, talking about the film. Across the day event we also heard from others who worked on the production, including Kevin Jenkins, Jake Lunt Davies, Martin Rezard, Oliver Steeples, Katy Coleman, Lee Towersey, Sonny Merchant, Kiran Shah and Matt Stirling.
The tall fella to the right is an impressive fan made recreation of Grummgar, the Dowutin seen in Maz Kanata’s castle.
It was great to spend a day absorbed in the nostalgia of this release. The Force Awakens reignited the Star Wars fan inside me that had been dormant since my teens. It was also the start of me becoming a more regular cinema goer again.
I remember so much about that night. There’s a lot of talk these days around the need for film releases to be “an event”, with the unlikely ‘Barbenheimer’ double feature being the wheeled out example (though completely unpredicted or planned and driven by audiences). My first screening of The Force Awakens felt like an event.
Outside our local Empire cinema (which has since become a Cineworld, and now a Vue) there were three Star Wars branded vehicles from the local Hendy Group dealerships. At the food and drink counter you could buy four different popcorn buckets and cups. While we were waiting for the film to start a large group of cosplayers paraded through. I still have the empty packet of Jelly Belly beans, featuring Darth Vader that Sam bought me to take with us.
It wasn’t 1977, or even 1999, but it felt like the third in a trilogy of important years in Star Wars and cinema.
Even with the franchise set to return to cinemas next year with The Mandalorian and Grogu in May, I’m not sure if it’s possible to recreate that feeling for a fourth time – the world has changed in the intervening decade. Regardless of current audience tastes and trends, I will be there opening night and I expect most of the folks I shared a day with in Fordingbridge this month will be too.
Liam Toms 