Pass the Lightsaber: Costumed Star Wars Relay Planned from Marin to Comic-Con

While storm trooper appearances and fans donning costumes at Star Wars screenings aren’t entirely unusual occurrences in Marin, this summer Star Wars and classic comic characters will be racing through the county, passing a lightsaber from one to another, in a new Comic-Con-ending relay modeled after the Olympic torch tradition.

It’ll be the second annual Course of the Force, but it’s first time in Marin — last year the course went from Santa Monica to San Diego for the 2012 Comic-Con International. 

If everything goes as planned, Marin will coincidentally have a brand new park with statues of Yoda and Indiana Jones in time for the relay. San Anselmo resident and Star Wars creator George Lucas donated property in downtown San Anselmo to the town’s chamber foundation with plans to create the community park. Officials hope to have the park complete by the end of June.

The relay, a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish foundation, will begin at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in northern San Rafael on July 9 and head into San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge before arriving at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International convention on July 15.

Event organizer Chris Hardwick, a comedian and founder of Nerdist Industries, recently told Entertainment Weekly that last year’s Course of the Force resulted in a hilarious “mash-up” of comic-con images:

“We had hoped that some people would run in costume. We had no idea how many people actually would. My memory is a flash of all the amazing cosplay — some Boba Fetts, father and son Stormtroopers, an unreal General Grievous, and even a Marty McFly (we had stressed that all cosplay was welcome) among many others, running down the I-5 Freeway while being led by Jabba’s Sail Barge, which we had built to be our pace vehicle. True story!”

After the success of the 2012 run, Lucasfilm reached out to Hardwick and suggested starting the run in Marin, Hardwick told EW.

Along the route, Course of the Force will have city stops featuring “Conivals,” including live entertainment, expo booths, giveaways and more, according to the Course of the Force website.

Relay spots cost $150 and participants, who are encouraged to wear Star Wars gear, will run a quarter-mile segment and receive a customized Hasbro lightsaber and a Course of the Force swag bag. Click here to register for the relay on the Course of the Force website.

Lucas garnered national attention in 2012 for his decision to pull the plug on his plans for Grady Ranch and, more recently, when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4.05 billion.

He donated all the cash from the Lucasfilm-Disney deal to his foundation Edutopia, which is based in San Rafael and supports education programs.

Lucas has also recently submitted a bid to open an art museum in San Francisco’s Presidio.

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