Iqaluit Star Wars fans feel a galaxy away, missing out on movie premiere

Iqaluit Star Wars fans won't be kicking off this holiday season with a visit to the movie theatre to see the latest chapter of the intergalactic saga — as has been their tradition in recent years — because there's nowhere for them to go. 

The city's only movie theatre — the Astro — closed in the summer for renovations with plans to reopen in the fall, but the reopening date was recently pushed to the spring. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the end of the reboot trilogy that takes place in the years after Episode VII — Return of the Jedi, opened across the country this week. 

Disney has been releasing movies in the Star Wars franchise at the start of the holidays for the last five years. 

Iqaluit is home to the Arctic Outpost of the 501st legion. It's an international fan group brought together by a love of Star Wars costuming. The group holds membership drives and events that raise money for children's charities. 

Steve and Sherri Leyden run the Iqaluit outpost. They say they're disappointed they won't be able to catch the film in Nunavut this year, but many outpost members will still be doing charity work. 

"We've always made a deal of the movie. That's where our main fundraising goes, that and the parades," Steve Leyden said. 

Star Wars in the spring 

Daniel Thompson is a Star Wars enthusiast in Iqaluit, having built a number of scale models of robots from the movies, including BB-8 and R2D2. 

Conveniently, he's also the managing director of the theatre and in charge of choosing what films come through the Astro. 

If the theatre can acquire the necessary rights, the plan is to have The Rise of Skywalker play on reopening night in March.  

"I know a lot of people are disappointed, I know I am myself," Thompson said. "I know when the movie theatre reopens they're going to bring it in, we'll probably do something then, some sort of big Star Wars event for the people who haven't had a chance to see it." 

And Leyden says the 501st will be there all dressed up. 

"We've always had a good relationship with the Astro Theatre. We are expecting that to continue," Leyden said. "As soon as they are up and running and get Star Wars to the North, the 501st will be a part of it, raising money for a children's charity here in town."

In a minute-and-15-second-long answering machine message, the Astro Theatre apologizes for the delays caused by the renovations and promises to do anything they can to make it up to the community.