You know a new Star Wars movie just came out. Everyone on the planet knows. It’s practically impossible not to know. From cereal to phones to batteries to Monday Night Football, awareness for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens has grown to the point of ubiquity. Entertaining as the film was, its quality was irrelevant; it doesn’t take a Jedi to predict that the film will make an obscene amount of money and thus secure the future of the Star Wars franchise. The question isn’t if the movie will break the bank – it will. The question is, why? Why is an almost 40-years-old sci-fi saga about robots and spaceships the most important and visible cinematic release of the year?

Because Star Wars is a religion.

A long, long time ago, George Lucas spliced Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, samurai movies, Flash Gordon serials and new age philosophy together to create one of the highest grossing films of all time: Star Wars. Big deal, right? Movies and their studios break box office records like clockwork these days. Star Wars, however, remained lodged in the consciousness of fans around the world. To this day, Star Wars’ rabid acolytes collect relics, adorn ceremonial attire and contribute to the community in a manner more suited to a religious order than a movie fanbase. So fervent are these fans that even the creator, Lucas himself, has had to flee the web for fear of their vitriol. In their minds, these fans understand Star Wars better than its maker.

Star Wars’ “Expanded Universe” and the brouhaha surrounding it only add to the franchise’s dogmatic status. While other movie franchises have “cinematic universes,” Star Wars has full-fledged apocrypha. Discussions about what constitutes Star Wars “canon” are tinged with a theological sense of importance, even when the content in question revolves around racist aliens and laser swords. All content in Star Wars falls under this scrutiny, from the movies to the children’s books.

Hype for Star Wars isn’t just a part of pop culture. It is a culture, replete with its own complex, convoluted mythology and adherents who border on fundamentalism. Expect the release of The Force Awakens to be a religious experience for many, because that’s exactly what it is – legally, for some.