With Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens now filmed and the teaser hitting our screens, it's hard to believe it has been over three decades since the Millenium Falcon sailed the skies of the Galactic Empire for the first time - and transformed the motion picture industry. Thirty odd years since movie fans first heard Obi Wan Kenobi utter the now-immortal words, "May the force be with you."
But it has. May 25, 1977, was the release date of Star Wars.
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"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away . . ." the opening line to the film George Lucas's wrote and directed and at one time became the second largest grossing movie of all time, selling more than $400 million worth of tickets.
Star Wars introduced now-familiar characters as Luke Skywalker (originally called Skykiller - but changed because it sounded too negative), Han Solo and Princess Leia, who looked as if she had bread rolls stuck to the sides of her head.
While the films had a cartoon quality about them, audiences loved them, a devotion they demonstrated by racing to two sequels: The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, at one time the fifth and third largest grossing films in history.
Then there is the ominous Darth Vader, a name now always recognised as a forces of evil. Vader's voice belonged to James Earl Jones.
Jones never allowed his name to appear on the film's credits. Sir Alec Guinness thought it was ok to be credited for the role of Obi Wan Kenobi. Though he later had other ideas about the fame the film brought him.
Star Wars was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and received seven, mostly for the technical skill of spaceships hurtling across the big screen in a way that audiences had never seen before. This effect mastery changed the special effects field in a way that hardly could have been imagined.
Lucas spent 2 1/2 of what he calls the worst years of his life writing, selling and filming the story. Yet he received no awards. There was the consolation of becoming wealthy enough to do whatever he wanted in the future.
An amazing legacy of Star Wars was the merchandising - the Droids, Ewoks, Wookie, etc., that have brought in several billion in sales. In 1984, the costumes of two of the loved characters, C3PO and R2-D2, were donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
Star Wars has become such a familiar name that in a U.S. District Court, Lucas tried to stop the use of the words "Star Wars" in a commercial praising U.S. President Ronald Reagan's plan for an anti-missile shield.
Though Reagan has insisted he is sorry anybody ever called his program by that name, Lucas lost the suit and the name stuck.
Though in December 2015, no one will remember that when JJ Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens brings Star Wars back to cinemas and waiting fans.