May the fourth be with you: All the best from Star Wars Day 2016

Special guests appear in Daisy Ridley’s Star Wars Day video

In a new video posted on YouTube’s official Star Wars channel, Star Wars: The Force Awakens actress Daisy Ridley wishes everyone a happy Star Wars Day and thanks fans of the franchise who have contributed to the “Force For Change” campaign that benefits a long list of charities. She also receives a visit from a few supporting characters in the film — one of which brings her a special gift from her The Force Awakens co-star John Boyega.

Ridley appears to have filmed the video from the set of the still-untitled Star Wars: Episode VIII, and various nonhuman characters make cameos, including the ball-shaped droid BB-8. The gift from Boyega — an action figure in his likeness — appears to be delivered by Ello Asty, the rebel pilot from The Force Awakens who was believed to be named after the Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty album.

R2-D2 lends the International Space Station a hand

NASA gave Star Wars fans plenty of love on this year, posting a video featuring an appearance by R2-D2 in celebration of Star Wars.

In the video, the iconic Astromech droid is touring the NASA  receives a special mission from the rebel base to aid NASA flight engineer Rick Mastracchio in delivering NASA’s May the 4th message from the International Space Station.

Tweets by @ISS_Research

That wasn’t the only Star Wars-themed activity from the space station, however. The official ISS Twitter account posted a quick message, along with a photo from the crew mid-Star Wars marathon. We can’t think of any better way to watch Star Wars.

Hear the entirety of The Force Awakens’ cantina tune, “Jabba Flow”

The Force Awakens had many loving nods and callbacks to the original Star Wars trilogy, especially the original Star Wars. Once such scene was Maz Kanata’s lively and boisterous castle pub, an obvious homage to the Mos Eisley cantina from the original movie, filled with original creatures and characters brought to life by practical effects, including a house band full of strange aliens playing goofy, groovy intergalactic song known as “Jabba Flow.”

For Star Wars day 2016, “Jabba Flow” has been released in its entirety so fans can fill their ears with the swinging sounds that were, surprisingly, written and performed by director J.J. Abrams and actor/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. You can peep the stream over at Starwars.com, or nab the track from itunes.

New Star Wars Video Game in Development from God of War and Titanfall Developers

Star Wars Day wasn’t all fan service and Easter eggs, it also brought a big Star Wars-themed announcement from video game development studio Respawn entertainment, the studio behind Titanfall and its upcoming sequel Titanfall 2, who are working on a brand new third person action game set in the Star Wars universe. EA will be publishing the game, which is being helmed by Stig Asmussen, who joined Respawn in 2014, and previously directed the immensely popular God of War 3 — certainly a wise choice to direct a third person action title. Outside of these details, little else is known about the game, but it certainly makes for exciting news for Star Wars-loving gamers.

Related: With this mod, Star Wars Battlefront looks better than the movies

You can read more about the news at EA’s official blog post announcing the game.

The Galactic Empire’s Anti-May the 4th Attack Ad

If you find the fanfare surrounding Star Wars themed “holiday” to be nothing but an endless string of eye-roll-worthy puns and saccharine nostalgia, you’re not alone. In fact, you’ve got an entire section of the galaxy on your side.

In a good-natured, tongue-in-cheek clip, Star Wars fans are commanded to cease their celebratory gatherings, telling them to “say not to May the 4th.”

Japanese Airline Unveils Star Wars-themed Jet Line

If you’ve ever fantasized about flying in one of Star War’s numerous awesome space craft, your dreams are now a little closer to reality. All Nippon Airways showed off their flashy new line of airliners, which have a customized paint job and Star Wars-themed accesories (like super cute BB-8 water cups).

You can read more about ANA’s new Star Wars fleet here.

T-Mobile takes the Fight to the Empire

T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” revolution has gone full-on rogue, taking the fight to the Empire — or, in this case AT&T, labelled as such because of its logo’s striking resemblance to the Death Star. For Star Wars day, T-mobile release a chrome extension that will swap out all instances of “AT&T” with “the DeATTh Star.”

Read more about T-Mobile’s trench run against their rival here.

NASA releases photos of real-life planets that resemble classic Star Wars locations

Ever wonder why most of the planets in Star Wars seem to be made of up a single climate or type of landscape? Well, NASA shed some light on this, revealing that not only are planets like this real, there are even real-life lookalikes of planets like Tatooine and Hoth floating throughout the universe. You can get a glimpse of these Star War-like planets and moons in a post over at NASA’s official Tumblr blog.