Tom Hardy and Gary Barlow will also make a special appearance in the franchise.


The 501st Legion and Rebel Legion have dozens of members in Vermont. They portray a host of characters from the "Star Wars" universe at events including visits to children's hospitals, Vermont Lake Monsters minor-league baseball games, video-game releases and movie premieres.

A love of "Star Wars" and a passion for costuming is the thread that ties the participants together. But they all have their own reasons for joining an organization that can be expensive, with costumes that can cost more than $1,000, and has rigorous standards, such as clothing, armor and weapons that must be nearly identical to what appears on screen.

Here's a look at three Vermont members of the troops.

More: 'Star Wars' villains join good guys to bring cheer to the Green Mountains


Ivory Racine grew up a fan of "Star Wars" in upstate New York but never believed a costuming group like the 501st Legion would be close enough for her to join.

Then on a whim in 2015, she threw together a fairly basic costume of a villainous Imperial officer named Juno Eclipse and headed across the lake from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Vermont Comic Con in Burlington — where she found a sign-up table for the 501st.

She has since become the membership officer for Alderaan Base, the New England group for the Rebel Legion.

Racine's primary "good guy" character is Rey, the protagonist of the current "Star Wars" trilogy, which picks up where "Return of the Jedi" ended in 1983. The second installment, "The Last Jedi," premieres Dec. 15, with preliminary screenings the night before.

"At first I was really hesitant because I was like, 'I want to be the bad guy,' because I've only had bad-guy costumes, but Rey kind of seemed to fit where I'm at," said Racine, 25, of Essex Junction, a residential counselor. She's the same age as actor Daisy Ridley, who portrays Rey in the films, and "it seemed like a really good entry-level costume to make from scratch."

She hand-dyed fabric and used a 3D printer to make pieces of the quarterstaff that Rey found while scavenging on the remote planet Jakku.

"After wearing the costume once or twice and seeing the reaction I would get from people, especially little girls, I was like, 'This is amazing.' They're so excited," Racine said.

She'll see girls dressed as Rey, or they'll tell her Rey is their favorite character.

"To see young girls really excited about Star Wars, which wasn't as common when I was a little kid, to see that totally switch with a female lead character is so phenomenal," Racine said, adding that Rey's strength and independence is part of her appeal.

"She doesn't need anyone to hand-hold her, to make decisions for her, and to still come to these hard decision points where she needs to do what's right even though it's not easy — that's something to really look up towards, something that is a positive role model for girls in a genre that is usually very male-dominated," Racine said.

"To have a little girl look at me and think that I'm really Rey continues to make me really proud that I'm portraying this character. They end up making the experience so much more rewarding for me."


When Nicholas Norton straps on his TIE fighter pilot gear, walks into the University of Vermont Children's Hospital and sees a youngster react with wonder and delight, he knows he's spent his time and money well.

"You walk into a kid's room, and their jaw hits the floor," he said. "That's something pretty special. These kids are going through so much pain, and if you can take their mind off of that for even 10 or 15 minutes, it makes it all worth it."

Members of the Green Mountain Squad of the 501st Legion have made yearly visits to the children's hospital since forming as an official outfit in 2015, said Norton, the squad's current leader.

He first became intrigued by the 501st when he saw photos online of legion members in full regalia entertaining hospitalized children.

"'Star Wars' has always been, since I was 7 or 8 years old, a pretty big part of my life," said Norton, 30, of Burlington, who works at Trader Joe's. "You think at some point you're going to grow out of it, and then you're 26, 27 years old and realize that really never went away."

He started out with a custom-made stormtrooper outfit that he purchased for $1,200, and now spends his time in costume mostly as a TIE fighter pilot. The helmet is larger, but the overall outfit is more comfortable. He can sit down.

Most of the bad guys in "Star Wars" wear masks or helmets, lending an air of anonymity. That enhances the realism and astonishment for youngsters, Norton said.

"When you show up to an event, it's not some guy dressed as a stormtrooper. This is three or four stormtroopers that stepped off of a spaceship," he said. "Those moments right there are what make it pretty special for a lot of us."


It was stormtrooper armor, those iconic white plates and helmets, that first caught Andrew Liptak's attention. He was watching the special-edition re-releases of the original "Star Wars" trilogy in 1997.

Then in 2003, during his final band concert at Harwood Union High School in Duxbury in Duxbury, he met a member of the 501st Legion. "I got to talking to him and asked, 'How do I get this for myself?'" the 32-year-old Barre resident recalled.

He found a summer job, saved his money, bought his own set of armor and joined the 501st's New England Garrison a year later. He attended events throughout the Northeast but hoped for a greater presence in Vermont.

By 2015, Liptak got his wish. After meeting enough fellow "Star Wars" enthusiasts to form an official local chapter, he became the founder of the Green Mountain Squad, with around a dozen members. Now the roster numbers about 30.

"One trooper's cool," he said, "but when you have a bunch of them it's even better."

The legion's charitable work also provided a draw for a hobby that could be seen as somewhat "self-indulgent" without that element, said Liptak, 32, of Barre, who works as an editor for the tech website The Verge.

"That's what we can do to help on the local level. We don't need huge, grand gestures," he said. "We can make one day better. … It's a good way to give back to the community in what is otherwise something you can only do at a convention or a movie opening or something." 

Liptak sees a convergence of the two sides of the legion: the geeky "Star Wars" fandom and the community work. There's a wider cultural acceptance now, too.

"People would think, 'That's cool, but it's really nerdy or geeky,' or say, 'Go back to your basement' or 'good luck getting a girlfriend,'" Liptak said.

But society, he said, has changed.

"People will come up and want to take a photo who would have made fun of you a few years ago," he said. "It's cool and acceptable to become a fan now."

Contact Adam Silverman at 802-660-1854 or Follow him on Twitter at @wej12.

Read or Share this story: