In this age of ever-present Internet, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t all that long ago when we didn’t have easy access to deleted scenes, alternate footage, and all the other goodies they love pack onto the Blu-ray special editions. It’s easier than ever to dive headfirst into the making of damn near any of your favorite films, and the sheer amount of content you can pore over online for even more obscure projects would likely leave eight-year-old me gobsmacked. But back before all that, one place you would occasionally see relics of paths not taken on the big screen were in trailers, which every so often included scenes or moments that didn’t make the final cut. Diving down that particular rabbit hole is easy thanks to YouTube, and it’s surprising what you can find our there, from Godzilla interrupting a field trip, to Klingon jailbreaks, to the tactical cunning of one C-3PO.

Good god, Star Wars, you’re killing us here. Because finally, after 18 plus months of speculation, rumor, and innuendo, they finally announced the key actors for their upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII. But that’s not enough, so it also came out that they’re still looking to add one more female cast member. Then we watched the wizards from Harry Potter take on lightsaber-wielding Jedi Knights, and NASA even had a special message for Star Wars Day—May the 4th. Seriously, it feels like all we’ve been writing about today is Star Wars, though we did manage to squeeze in some Godzilla stories and an article about a Doctor Who porn parody, just to mix things up.

But, because there’s never enough Star Wars talk to go around, and because the animated arm of the franchise was feeling left out, there’s some news on the Star Wars Rebels front. USA Today unveiled a handful of new stills from the upcoming series, and we also got news that they will drop a new trailer on Sunday, May 4—get it, “May the Fourth be with you.”

When it comes to Star Wars news on GFR today, forget all that Episode VII casting stuff, because nobody gives a wampa’s duodenum about any of that, am I right? Well, even if I’m not, there’s one perfect way to celebrate speculation about Max Von Sydow as a potential Sith lord, and it’s watching the above video “Star Wars vs Harry Potter,” from YouTube filmmaker community (or whatever) RackaRacka. They’re best known for their other videos in which Ronald McDonald goes to some very dark places, but the clowns have been left behind, and replaced with three minutes of pure geek ambrosia instead.

One of the unforeseen downsides of working for a science fiction website is sitting through fanmade videos from people whose time would definitely be better spent doing other things. Not the case with directors Danny and Michael Philippou, who turned an ordinary day of video games and bro time into a (quidditch) balls to the wall brawl between a Jedi Knight and a Harry Potter-ish wizard. It’s not entirely clear what’s going on until the magic wand and lightsaber come out and the two friends excellently start vocalizing with the music. But then: mayhem. If this were a daily exhibit at some kind of a fanboy amusement park, it would pack the seats for every show.

Earlier today we finally, after more than 18 months of speculation, rumor, hearsay, gossip, and rampant, baseless conjecture, found out about cast of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII. I wonder if you could have placed a bet in Vegas? Or what the odds would have been? So we’ll have that to talk about from now until the film opens on December 18, 2015. We still don’t know anything about the roles the actors will play, except for the obvious ones—I’m assuming that Harrison Ford will in fact play Han Solo, but Abrams plays things, so close to the vest it’s entirely possible he won’t even admit to that. One thing you might have noticed about the casting announcement is that it is a total sausage party. But according to one report, Episode VII is still in the market for a potential female lead.

Of the seven new additions to the franchise—John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow—only one is a woman. In fact, even when you add these actors to the returning stars—Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker—only two of the cast members, Fisher and Ridley, lack a Y chromosome. It was starting to smell a lot like dude.

Today’s news cycle may have been dominated by the official announcement of Star Wars: Episode VII’s cast, but I’d hate to let any smaller stories fall into the cracks. Like, how a NASA astronaut decided to send out a celebratory video in anticipation of May the Fourth — Star Wars Day!

Yes, ISS flight engineer Rick Mastracchio figured the perfect way to celebrate Star Wars day was to beam a special message down from the ISS while hanging weightlessly in the way all us jealous landlubbers wish we could. But wait! The communications array is failing! Thankfully R2-D2 just happened to be hanging around NASA, so he just hopped a right on a conveniently timed launch, zipped up to the ISS, and saved the day. Thanks, little buddy!

Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. At long last, that’s the cast of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII, officially announced today on StarWars.com, along with the above picture of the cast gathered together with director Abrams.

Abrams’ statement reads:

We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.