UK Star Wars fans today became the first in the world to get their hands on The Complete Saga on Blu-ray and Lucasfilm used the launch to kick of a week of events in the capital.
Darth Vader and a sinister fleet of Stormtroopers took to the streets of London for an Imperial March – beginning at St. James’ Park and ending at HMV on Oxford Street.
Tomorrow Anthony Daniels (come now padawan, he’s C-3PO!) will meets fans at the grand opening of the HMV at the new Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford, where he’ll be signing copies.
Daniels revealed this week that he thought Star Wars was “ridiculous” when he first read it.
“I hated sci-fi. I thought Star Wars was ridiculous when I first saw the script. A princess without a kingdom, a couple of blokes, a couple of robots and a big hairy thing?” he told The Mirror , before adding: “But I grew to love it. George Lucas was a genius – smarter than Shakespeare.”
He also said that he was originally signed to secrecy because the studio wanted the audience “to believe C-3PO was a real robot” and that he only wore a leotard under his costume to film during the very hot English summer.
On Thursday 15 September Daniels will press a button from inside an official launch party at the BT Tower. The result will be to project a giant blue light from the top of the building, turning it into the world’s largest lightsaber.
Will this be enough to match the words of Darth Vader and “be a day long remembered”? Or will most London fans see that light and think “ Noooooooooo! ”