Actors who have appeared in the Star Wars franchise celebrated Star Wars Day on social media on Tuesday (May 4).

May 4 is celebrated annually by fans of the movie series as it is a pun on the famous catchphrase "May the force be with you".

Mark Hamill, 69, who played Luke Skywalker, one of the most iconic Star Wars characters, tweeted: "I'm beginning to accept the fact that I'll probably never do another movie that gets its own day."

He also uploaded a retro 1970s movie poster and added the hashtag #MayTheFourthBeWithYou_Once_In_A_Lifetime.

The original Star Wars movie in 1977, created by director-producer George Lucas, has spawned a whole media franchise.

Another star, Natalie Portman, 39, who played Padme Amidala in the prequel trilogy (1999 to 2005), shared a throwback photo of her hugging Ahmed Best, who voiced Jar Jar Binks.

"Throwback to the Blue Mountains with my forever friend @bestahmed - while shooting episode 2 in Sydney, 20 years ago," she wrote in her Instagram post.

One of the most heartwarming posts was from actress Billie Lourd, 28, the only child of the late Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia. Fisher died in 2016 of cardiac arrest at the age of 60.

Lourd, who plays Lieutenant Connix in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015 to 2019), shared two photos of her baby son, Kingston Fisher, on Instagram. In one of them, he is watching his grandmother on a laptop and wearing a Princess Leia crochet hat, and in the other, he is dressed in a onesie with Princess Leia pointing a gun.

Other stars who marked the unofficial Star Wars day include Pedro Pascal (Din Djarin), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano) and Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan).

Dawson, 41, who appeared in season two of The Mandalorian (2019 to present), wrote: "I just turned eight years old when the original Star Wars came out. It was a movie that changed me.

"It inspired me; it made me believe in the power of underdogs in a righteous cause; it affirmed to me the limitless strength of committed friendships, and expanded my sense of the magic and mystery of the universe. And yes, The Force spoke to my burgeoning sense of faith and the connectedness of all things."