#ForceForDaniel Succeeds – Terminal Cancer Patient Daniel Fleetwood Sees Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars fan Daniel Fleetwood has been living with a form of cancer that is expected to take his life by the end of the year, but he has been determined to fight it long enough to see The Force Awakens. Thanks to the combined efforts of Daniel, his wife Ashley, and social media support, Daniel’s wish to see the film before its official release has been granted.
Ashley Fleetwood recently revealed on Facebook that her husband got to see an early screening of the film thanks to support from fellow Star Wars fans and Lucasfilm themselves:
To all our wonderful supporters, friends, family and awesome strangers: Daniels final dream was just granted!!! Today the wonderful Disney and Lucasfilms made his final dream come true, in the amazing typical Disney way, they really do make dreams come true! Daniel just finished watching an unedited version of Star Wars: The Force Awakens!!! We would like to thank the awesomely talented JJ Abrams for calling us yesterday to tell us Danjel was getting his wish granted! We also would like to thank Lynne, Ben and Anahuac for coming to our home and screening the movie for Daniel. Lastly I want to thank ALL the amazing people who helped make this happen, thank you beyond words!!! May the force be with you all ‪#‎forcefordaniel‬ !!!!
We at Star Wars News Net are very happy to know that Daniel’s dying wish has been granted. We would like to thank J. J. Abrams, Disney, Bad Robot, and Lucasfilm for being gracious enough to present the movie to him – it really shows that the people involved not only have a huge heart for the saga, but for its fans as well.
If you are interested in helping Daniel’s family to pay for his medical bills, visit the GoFundMe page dedicated to it here. Since the #ForceForDaniel campaign started on October 28, Star Wars fans anticipating The Force Awakens have donated over $26,000 to the charity – more than doubling the $15,000+ raised in previous months.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Way to go, Disney and J. J. Abrams! Thank you so much for granting this man his final wish!
YESSS FAM!!!!
Congratulations Daniel. NO SPOILERS!! Be Well.
Awesome! It is cool to know that you got your wish! Be strong and be well. May the Force be with you, always.
Congrats Daniel!!!!!!! May The Force Be With You….ALWAYS. I hope it was everything you had dreamed and hoped it would be.
Happy tears right now. It feels somehow complete now. I’m glad he got his wish.
No joke before I read your comment I said I felt the same way!!
This story made me cry…
Such a mix of emotions. I keep trying not to cry but the air of finality is just so overwhelming. It’s one last battle he fought and won. Good on him and JJ/Disney.
GIVE US INFORMATION HOW WAS IT
very, very happy for him. 🙂 i am curious how many non disclosure forms they made him sign before he could see it…
Probably 7000 fourms and even then some people would get the info out of him i suggest not looking for news online for a while
I expect he was pushing himself along just in hopes to see TFA. He’ll be too drained now to be on the internet.
I hope his end is peaceful.
I think Disney Legal could squeeze it into one document. (One single 1,138-page document).
Faith in humanity restored.
Good for Disney and JJ.
Even more respect for J.J/Disney after this update. So happy for Daniel.
Does this mean the film is completely finished now?
last i heard, the score was the last major thing left to finish.
The Facebook post says he saw an “unedited” version of the film. I doubt it was completely unedited, but clearly not 100% finished.
They probably have the entire movie done….just some trimming of the fat is all that’s left to do.
According to the Washington Post, the cut Daniel saw was “four hours”…
…”trimming of the fat” indeed.
WOW!!!! That’s a lot of Star Wars!
unedited according to his wifes various posts around the web.
No. It said they showed him an unedited version – likely a rough cut.
John Williams is still recording the score and there may be some other final sound or FX polishing going on before it’s finally done.
Some films are worked on until just several days before release … barely leaving enough time to have copies of the film reels developed and distributed to theaters.
Yay for him! That’s awesome
The force was strong with Daniel 🙂 This goes to show that Star Wars is not just a franchise but a diverse culture of people who can come together and help for a great cause. Awesome!
AWESOME! My eyes watered…this will be a day long remembered.
That’s truly amazing! This was the right thing to do
That is absolutely awesome! Much respect to JJ & Disney!
Fantastic ! So happy they did this for him. Well done JJ and Disney.
Soo fuckin happy for the man. I just wish they would say if he liked it or not?????? What his reaction was???? =//
God has answered his and our prayers thanks to Disney for showing the movie to Daniel thankfully Star wars the force awakens was not sent out by fox who would never let something like this happen. Than you jj thank you Disney thank you world.
If God is going to answer prayers in this matter, He could probably have aimed a little higher.
Now now, don’t let your liberal hatred for the Fox Corporations show through. Why must you turn a positive into a bile filled negative? Conservatives have compassion too you know.
Haha wow your an ignorant idiot Death star 49 Get our of your Mom’s basement and get a job.
Amazing!
You’re also part of this successful story, SWNN. You were among the first to let us fans know about Daniel’s struggle! Congrats, guys!
This is such awesome news. 🙂 Star Wars fandom trumps all others. And props to Mark Hamill, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, & J.J. Abrams for their support as well. Proud to be a Star Wars fan today above all others. 🙂
This is a testament to how great of human beings JJ, Kathleen and Bob Iger are for granting this man his final wish. I hold them in the highest respect. Keep fighting Daniel, the force is strong with you.
Now I can watch the film as well… and so will my friends. Thank you Disney and JJ. All the best to Daniel.
You couldn’t watch it before?
It was an unselfish protest of sorts…
Fair enough, although I think your protest was misplaced.
I hope they told him how the whole trilogy ends as well so he can pass on in peace.
Awesome. See you on the other side brother. We’re all right behind you. There are other worlds than these.
Hell yeah. Well said.
Hile Gunslinger
May the force be with you, Daniel.
Pleased he got his wish.
Now what about the other fans in a similar situation?
If they cry about it publicly and act like they are owed sh*t because they’re dying then sure, they can have Dis/LF fly people out to screen a rough version of it for them too. Hell, why stop there, why not just have reps visit everybody and screen it for us all personally?
That is a sad statement Kenn.
Go luck Daniel! We’ll be praying and thinking of you.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope the dude lives far longer than projected, but flying people out to show him the movie because he cried about it publicly was BS. He essentially put them in the position where they HAD to do it or they would have looked like complete douchebags. That was wrong on his part and was complete BS.
Actually it was his wife that started the campaign not him.
Gosh Kenn, you’re right. No-one should ever try to make someone’s last days as fulfilling as possible, much better that they keep quiet and just get on with it. Hopefully you never find yourself in a similar situation.
Kenn you’ve got a couple of issues mate. You have made a lovely story into some sort of tale of selfish greed.
Daniel – I am so happy that you got your dream and I hope that someone whispered how the trilogy ends in your ear.
Peace and safe travels.
Kenn, warm thoughts to you, and good wishes for a happier life. I am sorry you are so angry, really. I am in no way sarcastic. I hear and respect your point about certain people getting special treatment, and how that isn’t fair. It’s painful, and alarming. But it’s not so bad as you think. We do our best to help people suffer less, and that’s all we can do. I wish you more pleasure and less suffering.
I hear what your sayin, but as my grandpa used to say: its the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!
Haven’t heard about any…
Thank you Disney, thank you JJ, thank you John Boyega, Mark Hamill and everyone else who was involved.
I hope Daniel and his family will enjoy their remaining time together. Godspeed to all of them.
That’s really wonderful. A class act by the people at Disney and Lucasfilm.
May the Force be with you, Daniel.
Is this, by any chance, DarthJarJar on YouTube?
This made me cry like a little baby!
awesome
As a distant relative of Walt Disney this made me proud today. I cried like all of you. Im proud to be in the Star Wars family. JJ, the actors who tweeted, and the fans. They did this so quickly and professionally. I’m in tears. I hope Daniel had one great moment of happiness. I bet he was smiling for 2 hours. Maybe shedding a few tears as well.
This is so sad and so happy. So glad Daniel got to see the movie.
As someone who has worked on the franchise I am really glad he got to see it first. good luck Daniel may the force be with you! Always
It was obvious that it would happen, but what’s great is that it took so short time to be done. This is awesome!
May the force be with you, Daniel. ALWAYS.
Very heartwarming.
May the force be with you, Daniel!! Stay strong.
Yay! As a lifelong (does 7 years old in ’77 count?) SW fan, who was also diagnosed with cancer at age 34 in 2004 (I’m so far… in remission Yay!!!) This just warms my heart. Cancer SUX!!! It SUX so hard people. Especially when you are young, like this young man, married, maybe wanting to be normal, start a family, have a full life, only to be told you have a fracking expiration date. It blows! It hurts! So happy he could experience what 99.9999% of us are going to enjoy by 12/18 here in the states (12/16 or 12/17 in other countries – so envious). He must be in pain at this stage, cancer hurts folks) he is such a huge SW fan, he is soooo young. This is good my fellow SW peeps! JJ and Lucasfilm and Disney, while they can’t do this for everyone, this is just so awesome!!!!
It’s called life, it happens to everybody. He isn’t special and shouldn’t have publicly shamed them into screening it for him. It was wrong.
Who are you to tell people what is right or wrong? Go and be a dork in silence please!
If you can’t see what’s wrong with what he did then I feel sorry for you.
If you can’t see what’s wrong with what he did then I feel sorry for you.
Remind me never to reach out to you for empathy for anything Kenn dear. Compassion seems to be lacking in you – I am sure your friends and family point this out to you on a daily basis. I feel bad for you.
He’s not worth the replies. The fact that he makes a big negative deal out of this, says enough about him as a person. Let him be.
You would be correct, I don’t have compassion. I fake it for family because they don’t understand but I don’t feel empathy for people at all. It’s just not there. On topic however, I think it is a good thing that they showed him the movie, I think how he went about getting that privilege is wrong.
You would be correct, I don’t have compassion. I fake it for family because they don’t understand but I don’t feel empathy for people at all. It’s just not there. On topic however, I think it is a good thing that they showed him the movie, I think how he went about getting that privilege is wrong.
it makes me very happy that he got to feel what we all we be feeling in december.
I would like to hear what does he think of the film, spoiler free.
Wrong way. Despicable.. Had it been done in secrecy and no one knew, it would have been awesome. But this PR stunt is distasteful. Utter, utter distasteful.
THANK YOU! I’ve been saying this for days and getting s**t on for saying so. The problem isn’t that he got to see it, it’s that he publicly shamed them into it and turned it into a PR stunt.
Yes. Disney probably hates free publicity that showcases them in the best light possible and warrants coverage on major news channels. The PR team must be crying in pain people think Disney is caring and good and that the The Force Awakens is so anticipated is people’s dying wish to watch it. It’s a nightmare for Disney.
You realize that it was his WIFE that posted about him seeing the movie right? I got an idea troll, go curl up with your woobie in your Mom’s basement and turn on Attack of the Clones.
You’re the only one trolling here by flagging and replying to everyone’s comments that don’t praise the guy.
Everyone? You mean you and the ONE other troll right? Everyone else has been supportive. Now go away.
Yep, after HE turned it into a public spectacle.
Yes exactly, I didn’t see any press release from anyone involved in the movie production on it. Word got out from his wife.
Don’t worry. He will die soon and leave his wife a widow, so you can feel avenged for his “wrongdoing”.
Are you on drugs??? i feel strongly for the family. DISNEY should be ashamed, taking advantage of a dying human being like this. They should have kept it all quiet. they turned it into a PR stunt
His wife told it on Facebook, it spread like wildfire after she told it. Lots of people were watching her account.
Don’t worry. He will die soon and leave his wife a widow, so you can feel avenged for his “wrongdoing”.
made up for him …. but ………..we didnt have to know this was happening . there was no need for his request to get into the press or the fulfillment or denial of it either .as someone else said … a mans life has become PR fodder . ….. bet there was more than just him or if there isnt there will be for 8 and 9… how long till they have to say no or turn it into some kind of sick lottery . …… should have stayed a private matter between him and the studio.
Careful your comments could get deleted for not praising the guy.
Don’t worry shaming the guy or trying to make him feel bad. He’s about to die, so you can feel avenged in your weird hatred for his dying wish.
I don’t have a hatred for his dying wish. I’ve explained it plainly. I think he went about it in the wrong way. maybe you should learn to read before you make asinine comments.
Was that what you had to do to start with yours?
What?
My comment was a response to your unedited comment and you know it.
Get back in the basement with your VHS copy of Phantom Menace troll.
You and Spartacus111 need to get a life andychrist! This man
is dying and all you can do is make a spectacle? There is enough hatred and negativity in this world without people like you adding to it. Show some
respect and dignity. This was a wonderful thing happens and all you can do is trash the guy when he had one more nice thing happen to him during an extremely difficult time. I’m disgusted!!!! Of all the ugly, demeaning people in this world you and S111 right down there with the worst of them.
i;lots of people are ill , lots are now going to ask to see each film as it comes out … do you say yes to them all? if not how do you choose?
If it stayed private the word would probably never gotten out to begin with and, and if what happened yesterday stayed private people wouldn’t know if he got his wish so why should they continue to help him get if it,
he already had it?
Well…was it any good? Come on, give us the Rotten Tomatoes treatment, here. We scratched your back, you scratch ours…
yeah man! was it good?! we’re,… im dying 2 know
how selfish of me, dude is dying of cancer, and all i can think about is “was it good?……”
Not selfish at all — It’s perfectly natural! 🙂
Think of it this way: When you give a wrapped present to a friend, you are eager for them to unwrap it!
You want to know they liked the gift! Ideally you *want to SEE* the expression on their face!
No, not selfish at all.
(Selfish would be “why them?”)
All this did was prove that public shaming of large corporations actually works. He should have made the request privately and KEPT it private. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.
Seriously? Hope you never get cancer. Im sure he was really glad he could use his extremely debilitating and painful terminal cancer for “shaming a large corporation.”: Just so he could see a movie a month before you. Get a grip.
He shouldn’t have made a spectacle of it. He could have done it quietly and gotten the same things. Instead, he essentially forced them into showing it to him. As for me? I have cancer, which goes un-treated because I walked out of the Dr’s office after he told me. Doesn’t mean I should get special treatment from movie studios or anyone else for that matter. I’m glad he got to see it, it’s the way he went about it that I have problems with.
Some people care more about people than about multi-billion dollar corporations. It’s weird you feel so much compassion for Disney being seemingly forced to do something than for the fact this man will die and leave his wife a widow.
I bet you are from the United States, where corporate brainwashing has gone so far people have no empathy for people, but feel hurt on behalf of corporations.
I don’t feel compassion for Dis at all. It has nothing to do with compassion for ANYONE. It has to do with him going about it publicly and putting them into the position where they essentially HAD to show it to him. Think about the backlash it would have caused had they denied him? He shouldn’t have USED his illness to put ANYONE in that position, corporation or individual. If he had been doing the same thing to an individual to get something of theirs for free would that be right? No it wouldn’t. He SHOULD have done it privately. He COULD have done it privately. He CHOSE to make it a public spectacle. Therefore he IS open to criticism on what he did and how he did it. Having cancer doesn’t mean that he can do no wrong.
It’s clear you have compassion for anyone.
But even being a jerk, you can be smart.
Disney is probably thrilled at the free publicity.
By the way, it’s not your place to say what people should or shouldn’t do. This man is fucking dying. Good for him that he managed to leverage one good thing out of a disease that is killing him so young and making his wife a widow.
And you can bet no one at Disney is complaining of the coverage they are getting. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Awesome! As someone who has lost several close family members to the Big C I am very happy for Daniel. To those saying this was a publicity stunt, shame on you. Get back under your rock.
The fact tat you’re deleting comments that discuss the problems with what he did is sad. You’re actively stifling constructive conversation in a place where previously, debate and conversation has been supported and encouraged.
Because your a troll. We get your point. You didnt like the fact he used public influence to see TFA early. We got it. Move on.
You’re the only insulting people and being aggressive man.
Yes. Because you are all rainbows and puppies.
JJ, Kennedy and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney handled everything like a class act. What an awesome thing to make someone’s dream come true when they are in such a terrible situation. Heart warming!
Wow… I’m generally pretty stoic about things like this. I feel happy/sad/frustrated, etc. but it never really affects me physically. I kind of teared up reading this though. Pretty awesome.
I am so happy to hear that he got his wish granted from Lucasfilm and Disney. I am so proud of the Star Wars Fan community in helping to make Daniel’s wish come true. I wish Daniel’s family hope and strength to get through this trying time in their lives. I wish for a science miracle for Daniel to extend his life.
That’s awesome for Daniel. I really hope he will overcome the sickness, I wish him and his family faith, because with God nothing is impossible! God bless
Amen!
How could he see an unfinished film?
It’s very nearly done with only 40 days left. Only a few effects shots and a final sound mix would be different in the final theatrical version.
That is fantastic and really shows the generous and humanistic nature of everyone linked to the Star Wars universe – so glad that Daniel got to see it.
This wonderful news! Disney & Lucasfilm you are AMAZING. Good for you Daniel 🙂 I applaud them for doing an incredible deed such as screening The Force Awakens. You have a powerful message to carryover into the universe
MAN I hope the movie was good.
Hell Yes!!!!!!! Thank you Disney,JJ, for making this happen!!!!
It’s all good but it opens up the can of worms. 1: are all dying people now granted to see Star Wars in advance. if not 2: Why is only this guy granted it but not some other dying person?
So if you can’t make every dying Star Wars fan happy, you shouldn’t do it at all? You’re opening a can of worms…you really don’t need to…
What other dying with short span to live wants to see TFA before they die? Make it viral if you know someone.
It’s things like this that really brings me joy. We all have conflicting political views and other things in our lives that could get us to clash with each other… but our love for Star Wars has brought so many of us together that wouldn’t have otherwise. Supporting someone like Daniel with his wish, and seeing Lucasfilm supporting him as well just makes me feel proud. Rarely do I ever feel emotionally moved by an article, but this one has done it for me. Keep being awesome my friends. 🙂
Daniel has passed away according to news reports. May the Force be with him.