Star Wars: Darth Vader storms the red carpet as fans are handed lightsabers during extravagant London premiere

Jennifer Ruby17 December 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Star Wars fans were treated to an extravaganza of epic proportions at the London premiere of The Force Awakens.

The whole of Leicester Square was transformed on Wednesday night as die-hard fans crowded into central London for the European opening of the film.

Unlike most other premieres held in the square, the film took over all three cinemas as characters from the franchise swarmed onto the red carpet.

Fans who were lucky enough to arrive early were handed toy lightsabres by staff before they lined the streets around the cinemas, which were filled with huge screens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens European Premiere

1/29

And the patiently waiting crowd certainly weren’t short on entertainment while they waited to meet the stars as Stormtroopers marched along the length of the carpet.

Darth Vader, C3PO and R2-D2 also kept guests happy by wandering (and whizzing) around ahead of the cast arrival.

The latest Star Wars premiere is the biggest that London has seen for quite some time, following in the footsteps of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in cinemas on December 17.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in