The official casting announcement for Star Wars: Episode VII is probably the biggest geek entertainment news of the year. Everyone is talking about it, and the fans are excited! Why wouldn't they be? We've got the original Star Wars cast coming back to reprise their roles. Every time I think about that I can't help but get excited! I grew up on these movies, I've watched them a ridiculous amount of times, and I'm still not tired of them. These are movies that just make me happy.

Casting announcements weren't as big back in 1975 as they are now. These days, casting news spreads like wild fire thanks to the Internet. Back then casting announcement were small little blurbs in publications such as Box Office Magazine, the LA Times and Variety. On top of that, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were nobodies in the entertainment world. No one knew who they were and no one cared… We do now!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences dove into their archives and found many of those original Star Wars casting announcements and posted them online. They also included a couple of articles talking about the success of the film including an ad Steven Spielberg took out in Variety to congratulate George Lucas. Who would have thought that the guy who made American Graffiti would change the face of cinema?