May the 4th

#MayThe4thBeWithYou was top trending worldwide on Twitter on Tuesday as it marked International Star Wars Day.

The “Star Wars” series of movies started in 1977 and has long been popular, gaining millions of fans from around the world. George Lucas, the movie director, took several years to pull together the funding and studio support to create one of the best movie series of all time. He was known to be unusual among the filmmakers of his generation for not caring much about what was going on around him.

“May the Fourth Be with You” is a pun on the Star Wars catchphrase “May the force be with you.” Fans of the series use it to celebrate Lucas’ media franchise on May 4 each year.

The pun is said to have originated on May 4, 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became UK prime minister. The London Evening News released a congratulatory statement that read: “May the fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations.”