HANAU, Germany — Soldiers and airmen at seven European bases are preparing for the on-screen bloodbath that will play out Thursday when the highly-anticipated final piece of the “Star Wars” saga debuts.

The release of “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” at the seven largest military theaters in Europe coincides with the release in theaters in the United States, marking a major coupe for AAFES in the eyes of Star Wars fans.

“It was pretty shocking,” 21-year-old Pfc. Johnathan Taylor said about learning the movie would debut at the same time as the American release.

In the year he has been based in Hanau, Taylor has never seen a movie in an AAFES theater, he said, because the movies offered there generally do not appeal to him.

That will change Thursday, he said, as he anticipates watching Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker transform into the villain Darth Vader in the most violent of the “Stars Wars” series yet.

“Revenge of the Sith” picks up where “Attack of the Clones” left off and provides the bridge to the older movies that George Lucas created starting in the 197s and remade with better special effects more recently. It is the only movie in the series to carry a PG-13 rating.

Taylor, who is reading the “Revenge of the Sith” book, said fans can anticipate exciting fighting scenes between Anakin Skywalker and his former allies as well as a long light-saber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the young Jedi knight.

AAFES theaters usually must show movies two weeks after they debut stateside, said Darrin McCready, a food program specialist for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Europe who helps coordinate movie releases.

But officials at AAFES headquarters struck a deal with 20th Century Fox to get seven early copies of the movie for Europe and one for Balad, Iraq, he said.

Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, beats the rest of the theaters to the punch on Thursday by offering a showing one minute past the stroke of midnight, McCready said.

“Revenge of the Sith” will debut Thursday evening at five other bases in Germany including Hanau, Vogelweh, Vilseck, Mannheim and Würzburg, and in Mildenhall, England.

Air Force Lt. Col. Bryan Scott stopped by Galaxy Theater in Vogelweh on Tuesday afternoon to ask about buying tickets for his three children.

“They’ve been excited about this, as most people are, for weeks, months, for the final saga,” Scott said.

The Galaxy Theater plans to show the movie 18 times from Thursday through Thursday, McCready said. AAFES recommended that the theaters show it at least eight times during the first weekend, he said.

After opening week, the movie will rotate to smaller theaters each week for nine weeks, McCready said. The theater in Kuwait will get the copy from Balad next week, he said.

Pfc. Oscar Michel said the release has been the talk of his company in the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery in Hanua for weeks.

“Everybody is talking about it,” the 23-year-old mechanic said. “I’ll be there.”

Staff writer Steve Mraz contributed to this article.