The VIP audience at “The Force Awakens” world premiere began cheering from the moment the movie’s first words appeared on screen, with special enthusiasm for the return of Han Solo and Chewbacca after a 32-year hiatus.
The crowd at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood also greeted franchise newcomers with excitement, including Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma and Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and loudly gasped at the film’s various twists and turns.
After the premiere’s showings at three separate theaters Monday night, audiences spilled out into an after-party held inside a giant tent erected along four blocks of Hollywood Boulevard. They snapped photos with Stormtroopers, lined up to build their own droid toys and noshed on salmon and short ribs.
Director J.J. Abrams’ vision for the first new live-action “Star Wars” film in a decade met with wholehearted approval from many of the celebrity guests.
“I loved it,” actor-director Zach Braff told The Associated Press immediately after the premiere. “I thought J.J. did an amazing job. My favorite part was just seeing the camaraderie between the veteran and the new cast members.”
“The Force Awakens” mixes old-school characters, such as Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa, with a new cast that includes John Boyega, Adam Driver and the spherical droid BB-8.
Film critics may not weigh in on the latest “Star Wars” film until early Wednesday, but celebrity guests at the Hollywood premiere are already flooding the social media galaxy with praise for “The Force Awakens.”
The most breathlessly anticipated film of the year was finally screened Monday night, ending a period of unprecedented cinema secrecy that’s kept everything but the barest details under wraps from almost everyone.
And while story specifics are still scant, the initial response is universal: it’s exactly what fans have been waiting for.
“It was epic, awesome & perfect,” actor Rainn Wilson, who attended the premiere dressed as a Jedi, wrote on Twitter. “The cast was stellar. JJ killed it!”
Walt Disney Studios, which will release “The Force Awakens” globally later this week, is keeping reviews of the film under embargo until 3:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday, but famous fans couldn’t help but gush.
“Holy crap, that Star Wars #TheForceAwakens is so good in the best old-school way!” Shonda Rhimes wrote on Twitter.
“There’s a new hero in town, in a movie that DELIVERS,” Rob Lowe posted. “Cried like a baby, whooped like a teen! #StarWarsForceAwakens.”
Stars were just as effusive in person at Monday night’s premiere.
“I loved it,” actor-director Zach Braff told The Associated Press immediately after the premiere. “I thought J.J. did an amazing job. My favorite part was just seeing the camaraderie between the veteran and the new cast members.”
Comedian Patton Oswalt said “The Force Awakens” brought him back to what made him fall in love with “Star Wars” in the first place.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said after watching the film inside the TCL Chinese Theatre, where “Star Wars” first premiered in 1977. “I had the same feeling as when I would watch these films as a kid.”
He continued sharing his thoughts on Twitter.
“JJ did it,” he wrote. “And without spoiling it, I can say that #StarWarsForceAwakens has the BEST final shot of any Star Wars film. Wow.”
Actor Josh Gad, whose Twitter page is fronted by a photo of the Millennium Falcon, was also taken back to his childhood by the latest “Star Wars” installment.
“Congrats to #JJAbrams and the entire cast and crew on an incredible film,” Gad wrote on Twitter amid a flurry of posts from the premiere. “#ForceAwakens made me a giddy 10 year old all over again.”
‘Star Wars will screen in space too
Can’t get into your local midnight screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Friday? There is another option — and although you may have to travel quite a distance to get there, the theater’s atmosphere is out of this world.
That’s right — the International Space Station will screen the highly anticipated movie, according to a tweet from British astronaut Tim Peake. The 43-year-old Peake arrived at the ISS via Soyuz for a six-month stint Tuesday.
When a Twitter user lamented that Peake couldn’t have chosen a worse time to leave Earth, considering the movie’s release date, Peake corrected him:
Movie-watching aboard the ISS is not unusual; astronauts have been known to while away the long evening with a space-based flick. Oddly enough, space disaster movies The Martian and Gravity — in which the ISS just happens to be destroyed — have been chosen in the past year.
Here’s what the projection system looks like, according to Peake’s fellow ISS resident Commander Scott Kelly:
And here’s what it’s like to be in the audience in humanity’s loneliest theater. Zero gravity seating included, but no popcorn in sight.
There’s no word yet on when NASA will beam The Force Awakens up to the station — but it’s a fairly safe bet you don’t have to worry about space-bound spoilers any time soon.
