Luke Skywalker and Finn the Stormtrooper, aka Mark Hamill and John Boyega, have joined an online campaign to let a terminally ill Star Wars fan see The Force Awakens ahead of its December 18th release. Daniel Fleetwood, 32, was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a rare form of connective tissue cancer, in July and given two months to live.
Star Wars cast members want to let a dying fan see The Force Awakens early
J.J. Abrams once let a terminally ill fan see Star Trek early
J.J. Abrams once let a terminally ill fan see Star Trek early
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Since then, Fleetwood’s family and friends have been using the hashtag #ForceforDaniel to convince Disney and Bad Robot, director J.J. Abrams’ production company, to allow the lifelong Star Wars fan to see the film before he dies. Hamill and Boyega retweeted the hashtag October 30th. Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca, also retweeted a similar tweet.
#forcefordaniel help my man get his last wish, to see a screening of Star Wars before cancer takes him. @bad_robot pic.twitter.com/XCuYD0KlpY
— Ashley Fleetwood (@pandorashley) October 29, 2015 There is precedent for this. In 2013, Abrams let Daniel Craft, the director of the New York Asian Film Festival, see an early cut of Star Trek: Into Darkness nearly five months ahead of its release after Craft was diagnosed with cancer and given weeks to live (Craft died just days later).
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