For the first time in ten years, the Star Wars franchise has released another episode, and the extreme hype surrounding the release has prompted many first time Star Wars viewers and die hard fans to the theaters.

It seems as though the culture surrounding Star Wars has opened up to a wider audience. In 2012 The Walt Disney Company bought the franchise, and announced the release of the newest episode Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The new movie incorporates different aspects than the previous movies, with additions such as (Spoiler Alert) the black male Stormtrooper, and the female main character, Rey.

Senior John Dolan said that, “I expected more Disney themes to bleed through,” and that, “Disney did a good job sticking to the story line, compared to other series That have been taken over by Disney.”

Perhaps it was due to The Walt Disney company taking over that the targeted audience has expanded, according to Junior Paul Miller “there’s a younger audience, I think there was more humor in it so I think there was younger kids too.”

Not only has the age group expanded, but the type of person going to see the movie is no longer simply the die hard Star Wars fan, but others who want to be a part of the fandom. Sophomore Ellie Cudmore said that, “my family had always been big Star Wars fans, and I never really got into the old movies, but for the new one I was sort of dragged along for the experience.”

It seems as though most people had seen only parts of the previous movies, and are generally more interested in the new one. Junior Hannah Miller said, “I had seen parts of the other movies,” and Paul Miller (no relation) said he had seen all the movies at sometime or another when he was younger, but he, “rewatched the fifth movie” before seeing The Force Awakens.

Others, Like Sophomore Alli Salmon, prepared before going to the new movie, “my dad is a big fan so we watched all the movies, and then we went to see the new one and it was nice because we knew who the characters were and everything made sense.”

Despite what some see as contemporary changes to the story line, the new movie also incorporates extensions of plot lines from other episodes. Hannah Miller said that, “I didn’t expect to not understand a lot of it, you really needed to see the other movies to completely understand the plot.”

Characters are brought back in The Force Awakens, and the the plot lines from previous movies is also built upon, while still providing an original story line. Although there are differences, as Miller said, “the biggest difference was the new characters,” however, Junior Adam Peterson argues that the plot is “basically the forth movie.”

Cudmore added that, “I knew there wear all new actors, and all new characters, but that they were going to bring in some old characters and plots, so I was excited to watch some new Star Wars.”

A common talking point among both those who had only seen the new movie and those who have seen the entire series was the shocking ending. And those I interviewed were adamant about not spoiling the movie, like Dolan, who said, “I don’t want to give anything away.” And both Salmon and Peterson, who made sure to ask, “have you seen the movie?” before talking at all about the movie.