Star Wars launches Instagram page with Darth Vader selfie

The popular franchise is attempting to engage with younger fans of the series

Darth Vader takes a selfie but gets the technique slightly wrong... (Star Wars)

Darth Vader’s inaugural selfie has been a long time coming, but now Star Wars’ dark lord has helped launch the sci-fi franchise’s official Instagram account.

The first image posted by the new profile shows Vader posing with his iPhone, about to photo himself. Captioned "another day at the office", the picture has gained over 17,000 likes on the site.

But it would appear that the selfie force is not fully with the robotic character, as his smartphone is facing away from him! Clearly a newcomer to the ego-friendly trend, taking the photo would have been much simpler had he turned his screen around and flicked the 'swivel camera' button...

Aside from Vader’s modern day shortcomings, the movie series also published two behind-the-scenes photos from the original trilogy of films.

One is a picture of Luke and Vader battling in The Empire Strikes Back and another presents Colin Cantwell's concept model of the Star Destroyer, featured in 1977 film A New Hope.

Colin Cantwell's Star Destroyer model for A New Hope (Star Wars)

In just 14 hours, the Star Wars Instagram account has attracted nearly 75,000 followers, proving that its appeal is not entirely lost on the 3G generation. A tweet told fans to subscribe to the page with the message, "It is useless to resist".

The latest instalment of the franchise, Star Wars: Episode VII, is due for release in the US on 18 December 2015.

Open auditions for the movie have been held around Britain with so many people turning up to the session in Bristol that the queue had to be closed.