Thirty eight years ago, the first Star Wars movie was released, creating a worldwide phenomenon to last through the ages. On December 18, the series will continue with the release of a seventh installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The new film is in the future from the last film, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Fans will be pleased to know that several returning actors will be reprising their roles that they had 30 years ago. These actors include Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo, Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia and Mark Hamill, who portrayed the iconic Luke Skywalker.

“While we do not sit down and describe what he’s been doing for those years, we do discover in the context of the story what the complications have been in his life,” Ford said in an interview about Han Solo with Fox News.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens also stars new actors such as Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

“The new, young actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyaga were well cast, well directed and are huge talents. They come off really well in the movie. They carry the movie,” Ford said.

Ridley and Boyega had their own opinions about the film as well.

“It’s an amazing movie. It works so well. It pays homage to the old and continues a new story and it’s so powerful. It’s emotional and it is Star Wars, it’s like so Star Wars,” said Boyega.

Ridley commented on the mass amount of people who worked on the film.

“It was an overwhelming sense of emotions… It’s just incredible though, there have been thousands of people that worked with the film,” Ridley said.

Critically acclaimed director J.J. Abrams will be directing the film, with assistance from George Lucas, the director that created the original Star Wars films.

“George Lucas has given The Force Awakens, the highly anticipated next installment in the core Star Wars saga, his stamp of approval,” Ernesto Newman of The ISUMB Preference said.

The movie is set around a young heroine named Rey, who is played by Daisy Ridley and a former Storm Trooper named Finn, who is portrayed by Boyega. Producers of the film have been very secretive about the full plot of the film, leaving fans to speculate tirelessly until the film is released. Despite this, Abrams has told the public that commonly hated character Jar Jar Binks will not be in the film, along with Ewoks. According to RottenTomatoes, 99% of users want to see the movie. In the previous films, the infamous R2D2 was the star droid of the films. For Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a new droid acts as a sort of rebirth of the R2D2, called BB8.

The Star Wars series was not released in chronological order. The original Star Wars was released in 1977 and would later be revealed as the fourth movie in the series. In 1980, the next and essentially the fifth movie in the series, Star Wars: The Emperor Strikes Back and in 1983 the final installment of the original trilogy, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, was released. Several years later in 1999, the first episode in the series, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, was released and three years later in 2002, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was released. The most recent installment of the franchise was the third episode in the series, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, which was released.