Brian Troyan hardly remembers seeing the first “Star Wars” film. At just 2 years old, his mother asked if he enjoyed the film and promised that Darth Vader would one day return. Though he was too young to comprehend it, it was a moment that would spur a lifelong love, beginning with backyard battles in childhood.
“We would run around the yard with broomsticks and fight lightsaber battles, and make Chewbacca costumes out of grocery bags,” he said. “We would go on a playground and we’d be fighting the Empire, we would climb a tree and we’d be flying the Millennium Falcon. I don’t know how I would remember being a kid without ‘Star Wars’ being around.”
The release “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which opens Dec. 18, is the latest installment of a franchise now spanning nearly 40 years. As the “Star Wars” universe expands, it has gathered generations of diverse fans, drawn together by a common fascination with a galaxy far, far away.
“We all long for adventure and excitement,” said 39-year-old Troyan, who is now a member of the world’s largest “Star Wars” costuming community, the 501st Legion. “Each fan’s appreciation for the saga comes from a different entry point, but no matter where someone comes in, a ‘Star Wars’ fan is a ‘Star Wars’ fan. We’re not all that different no matter what generation we come from.”
For a time, it seemed like “Star Wars” was over: Darth Vader was dead, and “Return of the Jedi” had effectively wrapped everything up neatly. But it wasn’t gone for the fans. During a dry spell in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Troyan fulfilled his fandom by selling his lunchtime desserts for money, and digging through the bins at the comic book store for old “Star Wars” sagas.
Certainly filmmakers knew that a “Star Wars” expansion would sell, but in part, the franchise lived on because of fans’ rabid need for more, said DePaul media studies professor Blair Davis. Fans lined up for days, if not weeks for the first of the prequel series in 1999, a level of devotion not entirely required of today’s fans who crashed virtual ticketing sites during presales last month.
“You only have to be lucky to click your ticket order online at the right time, versus dressing up in a costume, bringing your lawn chairs, lining up for a day or more,” Davis said. “I was in line for the first midnight screening of the prequel and somebody wanted to make a documentary about it. People recognize that it was a very devoted fan base going to see it on opening night.”
Ethan Mole was a fourth grader at the time, whose father woke him up to take him to the midnight screening of “Revenge of the Sith,” the third of the prequel trilogy.
“Star Wars” bonded the two, and Mole watched the original films on VHS as a toddler. Though he has midnight tickets to see “The Force Awakens” with friends, he already has plans to see it with his father in his hometown of suburban Batavia, Illinois, as well.
“I was a little kid, so he woke me up and was like, ‘we’re going,’” said Mole, who today is a junior acting student at Columbia College Chicago. “I had to go to class the next day, so I was a celebrity at school because everyone was like, ‘what happened?’”
But the prequels spurred an uneasy relationship between George Lucas and fans. To some who grew up with the originals – including Troyan, who camped out for the midnight premiere – “The Phantom Menace” was grossly disappointing. By then, fans had claimed the universe as their own, both through buying into the $30 billion franchise’s expansive merchandising empire – encompassing books, cartoons, comics, games, clothes and toys – and expanding the universe on their own.
For a certain sect of fan communities founded in the early 2000s, this meant delving into the spiritual side of “Star Wars.” After seeing “The Phantom Menace” in his late teens, Gabriel Calderon found something more than just an epic sci-fi odyssey: the philosophy of the Jedi, which would shape his way of life.
Today his own group, Chicago Jedi, is as much a fan group as it is a spiritual community, which seeks to live as a Jedi would, through meditation, martial arts and charity work. Its members are diverse, filled with generations of male and female fans who celebrate the universe in different ways.
“We have people who love to dress up, read, do the martial arts aspect and see the mythical side of it,” said Calderon, who is 35 years old and teaches fourth and fifth graders. His students can’t quite grasp his philosophy, but certainly know a Jedi when they see him dressed as one.
“We’re from all different backgrounds – our own group is basically a microcosm of the nation,” he said.
“The Force Awakens” nods to all of those fans, and new director J. J. Abrams – who was just 11 years old when “A New Hope” was released – knows how to rile them, DePaul media studies professor Paul Booth said. There’s the glimpses of old favorites like Leia and Han Solo, a notably absent Luke Skywalker, and new droids, starships, planets and adventure. Unlike the prequels, which brought some of the expanded universe and lore to life, this film pushes forward, an exciting prospect for even its most devout followers.
“All of these people – Millennials, Gen X, Gen Y – will all be brought into this movie,” Calderon said. “We will all have different perspectives on it, but I think our love of Star Wars is what brings us together.”
Today, Troyan has another burgeoning young fan on his hands: his 2 year old son. He hasn’t yet seen the films, but already recognizes that “his daddy is a Stormtrooper” and knows fan-favorite catchphrases, such as when Admiral Akbar says, “It’s a trap.” His elementary-aged nephew is particular to the cartoon series, “Clone Wars,” and one day returned from school with an encyclopedic knowledge of the universe.
“People who went to see ‘Star Wars’ in 1977 are now having families, and now may have children who have seen the new trilogy,” Booth said. “They may have grandchildren who are really looking forward to the J. J. Abrams movie. It becomes a generational thing, and it becomes a way of families passing something on.”
Though Troyan won’t be taking his son to see the latest film as he did at that age, he hopes to one day fully share in the excitement and adventure of the franchise.
“By the time Episode 8 comes out, I’m sure he will be old enough to appreciate it in the same way I was able to appreciate ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ when it came out,” he said. “I would like to think that in the same way, my son will have that same magical childhood in a galaxy far, far away, that I did.”