This December sees the release of episode nine of the Star Wars saga, The Rise of Skywalker, which follows on from 2017’s The Last Jedi. The story continues to follow Rey as the journey to discover who she truly is reaches its conclusion. Anticipation for the film continues to mount (although the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and baby Yoda have abated some fans appetites).
Of course, the film's trailer has given people much to speculate about. A stand out moment in the trailer for the film sees C-3PO state “Taking one last look, sir, at my friends”. The line was delivered by the actor Anthony Daniels (UK, b. 1946), who holds the record for the most appearances in Star Wars films.
Daniels has appeared in all ten theatrically released Star Wars films to date. Nine appearances as the droid C-3PO, and one brief cameo (in Solo: A Star Wars Story) as character called "Tak". His role in The Rise Of Skywalker will take that number up to 11, but whether there will be more to follow remains to be seen.
The 11 Star Wars movies released so far have collectively grossed $9,307,186,202 (£7,072,970,000) worldwide, as of 4 April 2019, making it the highest-grossing film series at the global box office. This collection of movies include the eight Star Wars features as well as the additional Star Wars stories Rogue One, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Clone Wars.
But it's not just the blockbusters themselves or the actors that star in them that hold record titles. Skillcon in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA played host to a gathering of Star Wars fans who wanted to be a bit more active in achieving their Guinness World Records title.
60 participants got together for the largest lightspeed saber winner stays on competition in December 2018. Taking on the basic rules of fencing but with a Jedi like twist, the competitors faced off until Cang Snow (USA) was the last man standing.
Another more active record was achieved by Johannes Roesch, Kathi Stutz, Ralf Johannes and Gabriel Cabrera Parra from Germany, who got together this year to achieve the fastest time to build the LEGO® Star Wars 75192 Millennium Falcon™ (team) which they did in a time of 2 hour 51 minutes 47 seconds.
The Star Wars 75192 Millennium Falcon also holds the record for the largest commercially available LEGO® set, and consists of 7,541-pieces.
Fans of the Star Wars franchise have always been some of the most devoted and passionate of all time and Steve Sansweet is a prime example.
Since 4 May 2015, Steve has held the record for the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia, with an audited and catalogued collection of 93,260 items.
It is believed he has close to 500,000 unique items but doesn’t have the time to actually count it all. The mammoth collection is exhibited at the tourist attraction, Rancho Obi Wan.
Steve may have almost 500,000 items, but that doesn't include the most expensive piece of Star Wars memorabilia (although he's probably already spent a fair bit on his collection!).
The item that holds this record is a Panavision PSR 35-mm camera used by George Lucas during principal photography of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. It sold for $625,000 (£398,933) in December 2011.
The camera had previously been in the possession of Debbie Reynolds, mother of the late Carrie Fisher, who reprises her role as Leia Organa in the upcoming release.
Another highly sought after (and highly priced) item is the most expensive Star Wars action figure sold at an online auction.
Hake’s Auctions recently had a Boba Fett Rocket-Firing Action Figure up for grabs. The prototype made by Kenner in 1979, which was not officially released over safety concerns, sold for $185,850 (£144,939; €168,304).
If your budget doesn’t stretch far enough to buying memorabilia maybe you can make some instead.
Julian Checkley (UK) and his Order 66 Creatures and Effects studio created the tallest Star Wars cosplay costume for the Star Wars European Celebration.
Their depiction of big game hunter Grummgar, from Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, stood at his canon height of 2.69 metres tall and won them first place in the cosplay contest.
Stan Munro (USA) went down an equally creative but more painstaking route when he created the Star Destroyer completely out of toothpicks.
The 1.48 m (4 ft 10.2 in) long creation was made of over 15,000 toothpicks and was completed in just one week.
While this may be the largest Star Wars toothpick sculpture, Stan has also created smaller dioramas of Battle on Hoth and the Sarlacc Pit, which took him several months. Size matters not when it comes to toothpick sculpting.
But what records are next for the Star Wars universe? It has been reported Han Solo (Corellia) and Chewbacca (Kashyyyk) have completed the hyperspace route the Kessel Run in just 12 parsecs.
We have received evidence of this but our review has been put on hold until we can find a witness who speaks Wookie (preferably Shyriiwook) who can clarify exactly how much the team rounded down their numbers…
Star Wars Episode IX is scheduled for release in December 2019 - let's see if it can follow the success of Disney's Frozen 2!
You can find amazing Star Wars records, including the largest lightspeed sabre winner stays on competition, in Guinness World Records 2020, out now.
