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'The Last Jedi' Will Be Screened in Space

Astronauts on the International Space Station will soon get a chance to check out the latest Star Wars movie.
Screenshot via 'The Last Jedi' trailer

Rian Johnson's long-awaited Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, finally hits theaters this week. That's great news for all the Star Wars fans around the world who have been clutching tightly to their stuffed Porg dolls for months in anticipation of the big premiere, but not so great for the fans who aren't exactly on Earth at all—namely, the astronauts currently living on the International Space Station (ISS).

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According to a spokesperson from NASA, the space agency confirmed to Inverse this week that The Last Jedi will eventually be screened at the ISS—but the astronauts should probably keep away from spoilers, because it's not yet clear when the movie will actually get up there.

"[I] can confirm the crew will be able to watch it on orbit," the NASA public affairs officer, Dan Huot, told Inverse. "Don’t have a definitive timeline yet. They typically get movies as digital files and can play them back on a laptop or a standard projector that is currently aboard."

This isn't the first time movies have screened onboard the space station. As the Verge points out, ISS has a fancy projector and a library with hundreds of films, one that's screened The Force Awakens and some other sci-fi classics in the past. Even before they had the projector, folks on the ISS figured out ways to rig up their laptop to screen new releases, like astronaut Michael Barratt did to check out 2009's Star Trek reboot.

Sure, it makes sense that astronauts floating hundreds of miles above Earth would still want to watch movies and keep up with the world back home, especially when its goddamn Last Jedi we're talking about, but still—can any movie really compete with just taking a stroll outside the space station?

For those of us still down here planet-side, The Last Jedi opens Friday, December 15—though if you didn't get your tickets months ago, you'll probably have to do like the ISS astronauts and wait.