May the 4th be with you on Star Wars Day in 2026
Free Comic Book Day happened this past Saturday, May 2, but, unfortunately, no Star Wars comics were included, unlike many past years. And, yes, Marvel didn’t participate in the annual giveaway, due to various circumstances, but the publisher was part of the competing Comics Giveaway Day — no Star Wars comics were found there either, unfortunately.
But that’s okay because Free Comic Day always happens right around another holiday we know and love: May the Fourth Be With You, also known as Star Wars Day. Personally, I’ve always held May 25th near and dear to my heart as Star Wars Day, since that’s when the first movie was released in 1977, but, hey, when in Rome, right? (And, yes, let’s not forget that Towel Day, which is celebrated in memory of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, is on May 25 too.)
Fun fact: the first known public example of the punny phrase “May the fourth be with you” happened on May 4, 1979, when Margaret Thatcher become Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and her Conservative party used the phrase to celebrate the event. Officially, it’s been a thing since 2013, when The Walt Disney Company gave it their corporate blessing, in the wake of their acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. the prior year.
If you want to keep celebrating Star Wars this month, tomorrow you can observe “Revenge of the Fifth Day,” which is a pun on the title of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The following day, you can continue that celebration with “Revenge of the Sixth,” or you can offer a nod to the original trilogy with “Return of the Sixth,” since Return of the Jedi is the sixth episode in the Skywalker saga.
And, of course, any day is a great day to remember the legacy of Colin Cantwell, who contributed so many key designs during the early gestational period ofStarWars in 1975, including the first iterations of the TIE Fighter, Star Destroyer, X-Wing Fighter, Y-Wing Fighter, and many others.
Colin’s Skyhopper model can be seen in Mark Hamill’s hands in the original movie, and his early concept drawing of the Star Destroyer has been immortalized in Star Wars canon as the Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser, as seen briefly in the movie Solo and more prominently in a first season scene on the Disney+ series Andor.
We have some exciting projects in the works that will help honor Colin’s legacy and let the world know about the extraordinary life he led, so stay tuned!