World premiere of 'The Force Awakens'

On Monday December 14, the premiere of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was celebrated in Los Angeles. Actor Harrison Ford (photo) was among the stars. Not only the fans were excited by the event. Film expert Jeff Bock told news agency AFP: "This is possibly the biggest premiere in decades."

The guests of the premiere filled up the movie theater and were rewarded for their long wait. The content of the latest sequel is still top secret but "Los Angeles Times" film critic Rebecca Keegan revealed this much: "History, roles, design, humor: Star Wars fans, this is your film."

Stormtroopers marched up the red carpet, along with the classic droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. Newcomer soccer-ball-shaped droid BB-8 rolled its way up as well. High security was set up - probably to prevent an intergalactic battle.

Director and producer George Lucas (left) did not want to produce a new part for his successful series. That's why he sold the rights to his film to Disney. What his successor, J.J. Abrams (right), would come up with led to months of speculation among Star Wars fans.

They didn't want to miss a single second of this mega event: Before the world premiere, countless Star Wars fans spent the night right by the film theater. Not all of them, however, were wearing the perfect pyjamas, like this fan.

The crowd of fans withstood the cold as temperatures in Los Angeles fell to 8 degrees Celsius during the night preceding the premiere of the seventh Star Wars movie. This group nevertheless seems to be enjoying the wait.

Some exercises also seem to have contributed to reducing boredom during the lengthy waiting period. It's hard to tell, however, to which side of the Force these two wannabe Jedis belong to.

And here is another fan showing off his lightsaber. In case you're wondering, the Jedi weapon could impossibly exist in the real world: Lasers cannot form beams that suddenly cease to exist 1.5 meters away from the handle - and lasers are permeable, so they can't beat against each other. You can thank the German popular science magazine "P.M." for this much needed killjoy fact.

The premiere of "The Force Awakens" was celebrated right here, in the TLC Chinese Theater. In 1977, the magnificent building in Chinese style also hosted the premiere of the fourth episode, which was the first Star Wars film to be released.

Nobody could have anticipated the hype stirred up by "Star Wars" - that's how the fourth episode had been called back then. The saga telling the story of the struggle between good and evil forces in a galaxy far away from the Earth became the most commercially successful series in history, making an estimated 24 billion dollars until 2012.

Just like Darth Vader, George Lukas (left) is also the father of Luke Skywalker - and of all Star Wars characters. The inventor of the saga withdrew from the series after his film studio was sold to Walt Disney in 2012.

Director J.J. Abrams (49, shown here during the shoot in Abu Dhabi) scaled down the fans' expectations for the seventh movie by declaring he was unable to reach George Lucas' level of magic. And he warned fans the would likely be disappointed: "But we have tried our best," he told Reuters.

Mark Hamill (now 64) already starred in the original "Star Wars" film. On the picture, he is accompanied by Wookie Chewbacca and Darth Vader during the world premiere of the third episode in May 2005. On Monday, December 14, Luke Skywalker returned to the same theater where the premiere was held in 1977. His part in the latest installment led to a lot of speculation.

In the seventh episode, British actress Daisy Ridley (23) stars as the junk dealer Rey, who lives on the desert planet of Jakku. The actress, who had been strictly forbidden to talk about her role, found the secrecy surrounding "The Force Awakens" rather tiresome. She only broke this rule when telling her parents and one of her sisters about the secret.

In Germany, "The Force Awakens" set a record even before the film hits the movie theaters on December 17: Well over 550,000 advance tickets have already been sold, more than for any other film in the country.