Games Movies TV

Wikis
My Account
START A WIKI

Wookieepedia
137,441PAGES
ADD NEW PAGE
STATUS ARTICLES
NAVIGATION
COMMUNITY
CONTACT
EXPLORE
DISCUSS

in:
Social media citations without screenshots, Real-world articles, Semi-protected articles,
and 4 more

Star Wars
VIEW SOURCE
SHARE

This article is about the franchise in general. You may be looking for the original film: A New Hope. For other
uses, see Star Wars (disambiguation).
"The greatest adventure series of all time."
Ebert & Roeper[src]

Star Wars logo

Star Wars is a science fiction franchise comprised of movies, books, comics, video games, toys,
and animated shows. It is a fictional universe created by George Lucas. The Star Wars story
employs archetypal motifs common to science fiction, political climax and classical mythology,
as well as musical motifs of those aspects.
As one of the foremost examples of the space opera sub-genre of science fiction, Star Wars has
become part of mainstream popular culture, as well as being one of the highest-grossing series of
all time. It is currently the third highest-grossing film series behind only Harry Potter and
the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[1] and the second highest-grossing media franchise of all
time (with only the Japanese franchise Pokmon outranking it).

Contents

[show]

Overview

AT-ATs on Hoth

"George Lucas has achieved what few artists do; he has created and populated a world
of his own. His 'Star Wars' movies are among the most influential, both technically and
commercially, ever made."
Ebert & Roeper[src]
The Star Wars story has been presented in a series of American films, which have spawned a
large quantity of books and other media, which have formed the Expanded Universe. The Star
Wars mythos is also the basis of many toys and games of varying types. The films and novels
employ common science fiction motifs.
Whereas Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, a science fantasy franchise that has enjoyed long-lasting
popularity in American popular culture, is portrayed by its makers to appear as a rational and
progressive approach to storytelling, Star Warshas a strong mythic quality alongside its political
and scientific elements.
Unlike the heroes of earlier space set sci-fi/fantasy film and TV series such as Flash Gordon, the
heroes of Star Wars are not militaristic types but romantic individualists. College literature
professors have remarked that the Star Wars saga, with its struggle between good and evil,
democracy and empire, can be considered a national epic for the United States. The film has
many visual and narrative similarities to John Ford's The Searches that also provides a clue to
the relationship between Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker.
The strong appeal of the Star Wars story probably accounts for its enduring popularity; it has
also been postulated that this popularity is based on nostalgia. Many Star Wars fans first saw the
films as children, and the revolutionary (for the time) special effects and
simple, Manichean story made a profound impact.
The Star Wars films show considerable similarity to Japanese Jidaigeki films, as well as Roman
mythology. Lucas has stated that his intention was to create in Star Wars a modern mythology,
based on the studies of his friend and mentor Joseph Campbell. He has also called the first
movie's similarity to the film The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa) an "homage".
The Star Wars films portray a world full of grime and technology that looks like it has been used
for years, unlike the sleek, futuristic world typical of earlier science fiction films. In interviews,
Lucas tells of rubbing the new props with dirt to make them look weatherworn. Lucas may have
been inspired by the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western films of the 1960s, which performed a
similar function on the Western many years earlier. It is tempting to speculate that this break
from traditional science fiction film influenced the cyberpunk genre that emerged around 1984.
Officially-licensed Star Wars novels have been published since the original movie was released
in 1977. Although these novels are licensed by Lucas (meaning he shares in the royalties), he
retains ultimate creative control over the Star Warsuniverse, forcing Lucas Licensing to devote
considerable ongoing effort to ensuring continuity between different authors' works and Lucas'
films. Occasionally, elements from these novels are adopted into the highest tier of Star
Wars canon, the movies. Books, games, and stories that are not directly derived from the six
movies of Star Wars are known as the Extended or Expanded Universe (EU for short). Lucas has
said that he does not deeply involve himself in the EU, choosing instead to concentrate mainly
on his movies instead of "the licensing world of the books, games and comic books."
The original (1977) Star Wars (A New Hope) has been selected for preservation in the United
States National Film Registry.
In 1978, Lucas sued the creators of Battlestar Galactica for its similarity to Star Wars, although
the case was dismissed as having no merit in 1980 by a U.S. Federal judge.
History
Before Star Wars
Although George Lucas had made a name for himself among some industry insiders for his work
at USC, it was not until the release of American Graffiti in August of 1973 that he reached
stardom. The film grossed over $115 million at the box office and was dollar-for-dollar the most
profitable film in the history of Hollywood at the time. Lucas' profit participation
in Graffiti earned him over $7 million. Lucas was now a millionaire and one of the most sought
after young directors in the world.
Alan Ladd, Jr., then the head of Twentieth Century Fox, saw a smuggled print of American
Graffiti before it was released in theaters and was determined that Fox was going to be the next
studio to profit from Lucas' genius.
Lucas would later profit from an upcoming star in that movie: Harrison Ford. Star Wars would
further place Ford higher into stardom.
Conception
Influences

Poster art for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope

Many different influences have been suggested for the Star Wars films by fans, critics, and
George Lucas himself. Lucas acknowledges that the plot and characters in the 1958 Japanese
film The Hidden Fortress, directed by Akira Kurosawa, was a major inspiration. Lucas has said
that the movie influenced him to tell the story of Star Wars from the viewpoint of the humble
droids, rather than a major player. It also played a role in the conception of Darth Vader, whose
trademark black helmet intentionally resembles a samurai helmet.
George Lucas has often said that his original idea for the project that evolved into Star Wars was
to remake the Flash Gordon movie serials from the 1930s (a "serial" is a movie shown in weekly
installments of about 10-20 minutes each). The license wasn't available, so Lucas moved on to
other ideas, beginning with Akira Kurosawa's film The Hidden Fortress and then Joseph
Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Despite the plot changes the Star Wars films are
still bursting with influences from the Flash Gordon movie serials, including the Rebels vs.
the Imperial Forces, Cloud City and even the famous "roll up" which begins the movie.
The second major direction for Star Wars (used in the 1973 synopsis) was to use the Flash
Gordon "vocabulary" to create an outer-space version of the Samurai films of Akira Kurosawa,
primarily Kakushi toride no san akunin (The Hidden Fortress, 1958), Tsubaki Sanjr (Sanjuro,
1962) and Yojimbo (1961). Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces eventually gave
Lucas a third and final major story direction, but many elements from Kurosawa's work remain,
including the two bickering peasants (who evolved into the droids), and the queen who often
switches places with her handmaiden. The Darth Vader-like evil general who has a change of
heart at the end wears a kamon (a Japanese family crest) that looks very similar to the Japanese
Imperial Crest.
Lucas had already written two drafts of Star Wars when he rediscovered Joseph Campbell's The
Hero With a Thousand Faces in 1975 (having read it years before in college). This blueprint for
"The Hero's Journey" gave Lucas the focus he needed to draw his sprawling imaginary universe
into a single story. Campbell demonstrates in his book that all stories are expressions of the same
story-pattern, which he named the Hero's Journey or the monomyth.
Lucas has often cited The Lord of the Rings series as a major influence on Star Wars. Lucas
learned from Tolkien how to handle the delicate stuff of myth. Tolkien wrote that myth and
fairytale seem to be the best way to communicate morality - hints for choosing between right and
wrong - and in fact that may be their primary purpose. Lucas has also acknowledged in
interviews that the Gandalf and the Witch-king characters in the Lord of the Rings influenced
the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader characters respectively.
The screenplays for the original trilogy
There are many myths surrounding the writing of Star Wars, many perpetuated by Lucasfilm and
George Lucas himself. Author Michael Kaminski tried to set the record straight in his book The
Secret History of Star Wars, as did Jonathan Rinzler in The Making of Star Wars, both released
in 2007.
Lucas' original concept was a swashbuckling space adventure movie. He says "the film was a
good concept in search of a story." He first tried to have a child buy the rights to remake Flash
Gordon, but was unsuccessful.

In 1971, United Artists agreed to make American Graffiti and Star Wars in a two-picture
contract, though they would reject Star Wars in its early concept stages. Graffiti was made first
and when it was completed in 1973, Lucas set to work on making his space adventure movie. In
early 1973, Lucas wrote a short summary called "The Journal of the Whills", which told the tale
of the training of apprentice C.J. Thorpe as a "Jedi-Bendu" space commando by the legendary
Mace Windy.
Frustrated that his story was too hard to understand, Lucas then wrote a 13-page treatment
called The Star Wars, which was a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. By
1974, he had expanded the treatment into a rough draft screenplay, which added elements such
as the Sith, the Death Star, and once more had the protagonist as a young boy, named Anakin
Starkiller. For the second draft, Lucas made heavy simplifications, and also introduced the young
hero on a farm, with his name now Luke rather than Anakin. Luke/Anakin's father is still an
active character in the story at this point, a wise Jedi knight, and "the Force" now became a
supernatural power. The next draft removed the father character and replaced him with a
substitute named Ben Kenobi, and in 1976 a fourth draft had been prepared for principal
photography. The film was titled "Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the
Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars." During production, Lucas changed Luke's name to Skywalker
and altered the title to just "The Star Wars" and finally "Star Wars".
At this point, Lucas was thinking of the film as the only entry that would be made the fourth
draft underwent subtle changes that made it more satisfying as a self-contained film that ended
with the destruction of the Empire itself, as the Death Star was said to achieve; possibly this was
a result of the frustrating difficulties Lucas had encountered in pre-production during that period.
However, in previous times Lucas had conceived of the film as the first in a series of adventures.
The second draft contained a teaser for a never-made sequel about "The Princess of Ondos", and
by the time of the third draft some months later Lucas had negotiated a contract that gave him
rights to make two sequels. Not long after, Lucas met with author Alan Dean Foster, and hired
him to write these two sequels as novels. The intention was that if Star Wars was successful
and if Lucas felt like it the novels could be adapted into screenplays. He had also by this
point developed a fairly elaborate backstory though this was not designed or intended for
filming; it was merely backstory. "The backstory wasn't meant to be a movie," Lucas has said.
When Star Wars was successful, and not just successful but the biggest hit ever made at that
time, Lucas decided to use the film as a springboard for an elaborate serial, although he
considered walking away from the series altogether. However, Lucas wanted to create an
independent filmmaking center what would become Skywalker Ranch and saw an
opportunity to use the series as a financing agent for him. Alan Dean Foster had already begun
writing the sequel as a novel, but Lucas decided to disregard that for filming and create more
elaborate film sequels; the book was released as Splinter of the Mind's Eye the next year. At first
Lucas envisioned an unlimited number of sequels, much like the James Bond series, and in an
interview with Rolling Stone in August of 1977 said that he wanted his friends to take a try
directing them and giving unique interpretations on the series. He also said that the backstory
where Darth Vader turns to the dark side, kills Luke's father and fights Ben Kenobi on a volcano
as the Republic falls would make an excellent sequel. Later that year, Lucas hired sci-fi author
Leigh Brackett to write "Star Wars II" with him. They held story conferences together and in late
November of 1977 Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment called "The Empire Strikes
Back." The story is very similar to the final film except Darth Vader does not reveal he is Luke's
father. In the first draft that Leigh Brackett would write from this, Luke's father appears as a
ghost to instruct Luke.
During this period, Lucas had now had time to attach a numeric figure to the amount of sequels
he revealed to Time magazine in March 1978 that there will be twelve films altogether. This
was then revealed in the official Star Wars fanclub newsletter, Bantha Tracks. The figure of 12
was likely selected due to its tradition in serial episodes.
Brackett finished her first draft of Empire Strikes Back in early 1978; Lucas has said he was
disappointed with it, but before he could discuss it with her she had died from cancer. With no
writer available, Lucas had to write his second draft himself. Here Lucas finally made use of the
"Episode" listing in the film Empire Strikes Back was Episode II. As Michael Kaminski
argues in The Secret History of Star Wars, the disappointment with the first draft probably made
Lucas consider different directions to take the story in. Here he made use of a new plot twist:
Darth Vader says he is Luke's father. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write,
as opposed to the year-long struggles of the first film, and quickly wrote two more drafts in the
same month April of 1978 which both retained the new Vader-as-father plot. He also took
this darker ending farther by imprisoning Han Solo in carbonite and leaving him in limbo.
This new storyline where Vader was Luke's father had drastic effects on the series. Michael
Kaminski argues in his book that it is unlikely that this was a plot point that had ever seriously
been considered before 1978, or even thought of before then, and that the first film was clearly
operating under an alternate storyline where Vader was separate from Luke's father; there is not a
single reference to the Vader-as-father plot point before 1978. After the second and third drafts
of Empire Strikes Back where Lucas first introduced this point, he reviewed the new backstory
he had now created: Annikin Skywalker is Ben Kenobi's brilliant student, has a child (Luke) but
is swayed to the dark-side by the Emperor (who was now a Sith and not just a politician), battles
Ben Kenobi on the site of a volcano and is wounded but resurrected as Darth Vader; meanwhile
Kenobi hides Luke on Tatooine while the Republic becomes the Empire and Vader has hunted
down the Jedi knights. With this new backstory, Lucas decided to film this as a trilogy
moving Empire Strikes Back from Episode II to Episode V in the next draft. Lawrence Kasdan,
who had just completed writing Raiders of the Lost Ark, was then hired to write the next drafts,
and was helped by additional input from director Irvin Kershner. Kasdan, Kershner, and
producer Gary Kurtz saw the film as a more serious and adult film, which was helped by the
new, darker storyline, and brought the series far away from the light adventure roots it had
existed as only a year earlier.

Lucas had also around this time developed a third trilogy as well, which took place twenty years
after Episode VI.

By the time of writing Episode VI Revenge of the Jedi, as it was then known in 1981,
much had changed. Making Empire Strikes Back was a stressful and costly work, and Lucas'
personal life was disintegrating. Burnt-out and not wanting to make any more Star Wars films,
he vowed to be done with the series, as he makes explicit in a May 1983interview with Time
magazine. Lucas' 1981 rough drafts of Revenge of the Jedi had Darth Vader competing with the
Emperor for possession of Luke and in the second script, the "revised rough draft", Vader was
turned into a sympathetic character. Lawrence Kasdan was hired to take over once again, and in
these final drafts Vader was explicitly redeemed, and finally unmasked. This change in character
would provide a springboard for the "Tragedy of Darth Vader" storyline in the prequels.
The cast and crew of Star Wars
Anthony Daniels reflects (literally) on his portrayal of C-3PO

Since most major motion picture companies no longer had special effects teams or they thought
the American public was no longer interested in non-realistic films, George Lucas had to create
one from scratch. He eventually put together a team of model makers and special effects people
to create Industrial Light & Magic. The team worked in a run down part of Sana Modesta in a
cramped work space which no one ever liked.
Meanwhile, George Lucas was looking for actors for Star Wars. Lucas had decided to go with a
group of unknowns and went against his friend Francis Ford Coppola who had picked famous
stage and screen actors for The Godfather. Hundreds of actors and actresses tried out for the
three main roles, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. Actors like Burt Reynolds and
actresses like Jodie Foster tried out for the parts but Lucas eventually chose 25-year old Mark
Hamill (who had only worked on television) as Luke Skywalker and 19-year old Carrie Fisher,
daughter of couple Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, as Princess Leia. Initially, Harrison Ford
was not eligible for the role of Han Solo due to fact he had worked with Lucas on American
Graffiti but eventually swayed Lucas over after helping the other actors and actresses with their
lines and got the part.
After casting the initial group, Lucas had to find actors for two of the films droids, C-
3PO and R2-D2. ILM had made some quaint remote controlled robots but these parts would
require living actors. In came 3-foot comedian, Kenny Baker. Due to his shortness and the fact
kids could not control this heavy machine, he got the part of R2. Anthony Daniels however
originally did not want to do the part of C-3PO until he saw a drawing of C-3PO by McQuarrie
and he instantly wanted the part and got it. Lucas eventually found Australia native Peter
Mayhew who was over 7 feet tall making him the perfect size for Han Solo's furry Wookiee
counterpart Chewbacca. After casting all the characters, Lucas began production on Star Wars in
mid-1976.
Star Wars comes to life
The cast and crew of Star Wars began filming in Tunisia, North Africa where mid-morning
temperatures reached 105 degrees. Many crew members and cast workers thought the movie was
a joke and between problems on props and machinery, during filming Tunisia had their largest
rainstorm in many years. Through it all Alec Guinness, the Academy Award winning actor who
was cast as the wise mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, kept up a positive attitude and was inspiration for
the cast. The only silver lining was that after Africa, the team would be filming at a more
controlled area, Elstree Studios in London.
After finishing up filming in Africa, The entire cast and crew of Star Wars finally came together
to film the action sequences on the Death Star battle station. While this was happening, problems
at ILM were far worse than the filming ones. Lucas eventually had to supervise every day at ILM
causing him to nearly have a heart attack. Meanwhile, Fox studios had had enough of George
Lucas and his "kid's movie" and asked Alan Ladd, Jr. to terminate the project. Instead, Alan told
Lucas he had only a few weeks to finish filming or have his movie fail. The last few climactic
scenes were finished quickly with Lucas bike-pedaling from soundstage to soundstage.
Eventually, the film was finished and the process to edit and fix his film began.
Problems Star Wars faced
When Lucas saw the first cut of his film, he was horrified. To make matters worse, he had to fire
his editor. Luckily, his replacements (including his then wife Marcia) greatly improved the film,
but Lucas still insisted on reshooting some scenes. This, among other reasons, forced Fox to
move the release date from Christmas 1976 to Summer 1977. After showing the film without its
music score to some of his friends, only Steven Spielberg, who had recently become an A-list
director with the release of Jaws, liked it. However, when Fox executives saw it they loved it.
With his film cut and most of the sounds for the film completed (and with the help of Ben Burtt),
Lucas started to think about his film's score. It was Spielberg who recommended John
Williams (who had just scored Jaws). This was considered a gutsy move because thematic scores
were out of style at the time, but Lucas went ahead with it.
The pre-release of Star Wars
After the score was completed, Lucas began to start marketing his picture. However, many
people thought it would be a flop, so not many people went with him. One company that did
however was the toy company Kenner Products who decided to make a few figures for the
release. Eventually, Lucas's film was released on May 25, 1977. It would be a day they would
never forget.
The success of Star Wars
When Star Wars opened, it initially opened at a few theaters. A month after its release Star
Wars played at almost every theater in the country and hundreds worldwide. People, especially
children, flocked to see the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia again and
again and again. Lines stretched for miles. Kenner, caught up in a vortex, ran out of toys by early
fall of the film's release. So, the infamous "Empty Box" scheme was formed. Fox's stock
rocketed up. Merchandise flew off the shelves by the thousands and Lucas became very
rich. Star Wars' run eventually ended by early 1978 with over 260 million dollars making it the
most successful film in history at that time. It would be re-released over the next 20 years adding
220 million to its overall total. Currently, it is the second-highest American grossing film of all
time (in inflation-adjusted dollars), second only to Gone with the Wind.
Star Wars was nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture and won 6 of them. But just being
nominated for it showed Fox and Lucas, who knew all along, that this was not a "kids' film."
The sequels begin
The Empire Strikes Back
In 1978, with George Lucas a millionaire, he began taking his screenplays for Episodes V and VI
and turning them into films. In early 1978, Lucas began working on Star Wars: Episode V The
Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars was also later retitled, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
However, this time Lucas left the Director's Guild and Irvin Kershner was the new director with
Lucas as the producer. Filming began in mid to late 1978 with the snowy planet of Hoth scenes
being filmed in Norway. However, during filming, as if a curse, Norway suffered their worst
snow storm in many years. Mark Hamill, who was still recovering from his car accident injuries,
filmed in a scene in the snow while the crew stayed in their hotel rooms. After the filming there
concluded, the next part of the filming process turned to Elstree Studios.
Since Lucas wanted this movie to be bigger and more spectacular than Star Wars, more sets were
made and new characters were introduced which included the first black Star Wars
character, Lando Calrissian, played by Billy Dee Williams and a 2-foot puppet
named Yoda voiced by Frank Oz. It was also the first time that Han
Solo and Princess Leia kissed. But the biggest surprise was Darth Vader's revelation to Luke. A
few minutes before shooting that scene, Kershner told Hamill that Vader was his father.
However, they did not tell David Prowse, the man in the Vader suit, so when they recorded
Vader's dialogue with James Earl Jones the line was "No. I am your father" (helpinfo) instead of
"No, Obi-Wan killed your father." This line would later spark the lightsaber duel in Episode VI
and all the Prequels adventures.
Many people believed that the sequel would not be as good as Star Wars but audiences didn't
think so. The Empire Strikes Back took in 6.4 million dollars of the weekend of May 21, 1980. It
was also considered the darkest Star Wars movie ever until Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of
the Sith was released. However, its gross in the U.S. ended at 290 million dollars making it the
lowest grossing Star Wars movie ever.
Return of the Jedi
Before beginning the production of Episode VI, Lucas, using the profits from Star
Warsand Empire, made Skywalker Ranch, a place where friends of Lucas could hang out and
work on movies, mostly Star Wars related things. It would be used greater during the making of
the prequel trilogy.
In early 1982, Lucas still out of the Director's chair, Richard Marquand began shooting Revenge
of the Jedi. Some of the new things in the films included a Speeder Bike chase, a second Death
Star and one of the most controversial groups of characters in Star Wars history, the Ewoks.
Also, to keep the title of Episode VI from leaking out, the title, Blue Harvest: Horror Beyond
Imagination, was the new "title" of the movie. After filming for Jedicompleted, a few months
before the film's release, Lucas changed the title to Return of the Jedi, stating "revenge was not a
quality of the Jedi", although some industry insiders attribute the title's change because Star Trek
II : Wrath of Khan was also to be released around the same time and Fox, and possibly Lucas,
did not want audience's confused between the similar titles. The "Revenge" title would
eventually be used for Episode III.
After Jedi broke single and opening day box office records on May 25, 1983, six years after the
original Star Wars opening, George Lucas's wife divorced him, leaving him to raise his children.
Afterwards, Lucas established several Lucasfilm companies including THX Sound and Picture,
the Pixar Animation Studios (which would later be sold to Disney), and several others. In
May 1987, ten years after the first movie's release, Lucas announced a second trilogy and hinted
at a third. In mid-1996, with all the technology necessary, Lucas began working on the Star Wars
movies the way he wanted them adding new scenes and changes along with THX Sound and
excellent picture quality.
The Expanded Universe
Beginning with Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was populated by a
slow trickle of novels, comic strips and television specials.
Almost a decade after the release of Return of the Jedi, Star Wars merchandising sales had
ground to a halt. In an effort to revitalize interest and capitalize on the success of other franchises
in books, Bantam Spectra and Lucas Licensingplanned a four year publication run that would
include several Star Wars novels.

Heir to the Empire re-ignited the Expanded Universe in 1991.

It was 1991's Heir to the Empire that sparked the success of the first run of new novels and
signaled a renaissance in Star Wars publishing. The Thrawn Trilogy by Hugo Award-winning
author Timothy Zahn would become one of the most popular science fiction series to date, and
introduced some of the Expanded Universe's best known characters like Grand
Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade and Gilad Pellaeon. Bantam would continue to publish dozens of
books across a number of eras, leading to the use of era markers after Bantam was sold to Del
Rey.
But books were just the beginning. In the same year as Zahn's success, Dark Horse
Comicsreleased Dark Empire, the first serious Star Wars graphic novel. It too would be followed
by dozens of comic series.
Star Wars video and computer games also contributed to the Expanded Universe, but
1996's Shadows of the Empire multimedia campaign marked a turning point. The simultaneous
release of a novel, video game, comics, soundtrack, toys and other promotional tie-ins set the
standard that would later be followed for the merchandising efforts of the prequel trilogy and
expanded upon for the Clone Wars.
The Special Editions

The Special Edition logo

In the 1990s George Lucas realized he could change his Star Wars films and began altering
them. Some new scenes included a dramatically altered Mos Eisley sequence from Episode
IV among other things. New scenes in Episode V and VI were also added.
From early to mid-1997, Lucas released The Special Edition versions of Star Wars into cinemas,
adding more money to their overall totals. Some changes caused uproars in the fan community
(Greedo shoots at Han first in Episode IV), while others caused a cheer (Improved Mos Eisley
and Bespin sequences). However, this was not the last of Star Wars movie changes.
The prequels begin
Development
After getting a divorce in 1983 and losing much of his fortune, Lucas had no desire to return
to Star Wars, and had unofficially cancelled his Sequel Trilogy by the time of Return of the Jedi.
However, the prequels, which were quite developed, remained fascinating to him. After Star
Wars became popular once again, following in the wake of Dark Horse's comic line and Timothy
Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy novels, Lucas saw that there was still a large audience. His children had
begun to grow older, and with the explosion of CG technology he was now considering returning
to directing. By 1993 it was announced, in Variety among other sources, that he would be
making the prequels. He began outlining the story, now offering that Anakin Skywalker would
be the protagonist rather than Ben Kenobi and that the series would be a tragic one examining his
transformation to evil. He also began to change how the prequels would exist relative to the
originals at first they were supposed to be a "filling-in" of history, backstory, existing parallel
or tangential to the originals, but now he began to see that they could form the beginning of one
long story: beginning with Anakin's childhood and ending with Anakin's death. This was the
final step towards turning the franchise into a "Saga".
In 1994, Lucas began writing the first screenplay, titled Episode I: The Beginning. At first it was
planned to write and then film all three prequels at once, but this was changed, possibly because
the writing process took much longer than first thought. Although Lucas initially planned on
having others write and direct, he kept writing on his own, and eventually decided to direct the
film as well. In 1999, Lucas announced he would be directing the next two films as well, and
began working on Episode II at that time. The first draft of this was completed just weeks before
principal photography, and Lucas hired Jonathan Hales, a writer from the Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles, to polish up his draft. Unsure of a title, Lucas had jokingly called the film "Jar Jar's
Big Adventure." By now the backstory had undergone large changes Ben Kenobi had
discovered Anakin as an adult in Episode I's first draft, but he was changed to be a young
student, and Anakin a child, and in Episode II the Clone Wars were decided to be a personal
manipulation of Palpatine's. At the time of the original trilogy, Lucas had many ideas for this
war: in Empire Strikes Back it was decided that Lando was a clone and came from a planet of
clones that caused a war, but later a different version was decided wherein "Shocktroopers",
including Boba Fett waged war against the Republic from a distant galaxy but were then repelled
by the Jedi knights.

Lucas began working on Episode III even before Attack of the Clones was released, offering
concept artists that the film would open with a montage of seven Clone War battles. As he
reviewed the storyline that summer, however, he says he radically re-organized the plot. Michael
Kaminski, in The Secret History of Star Wars, offers evidence that issues in Anakin's fall to the
dark side prompted Lucas to make massive story changes, first revising the opening sequence to
have Palpatine kidnapped and Dooku killed by Anakin as a first act towards the dark side. Lucas'
first draft was written in 2003, and is largely similar to the film, though much simplified. After
principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas made even more massive changes in
Anakin's character, re-writing his entire turn to the dark side he would now turn out of a quest
to save Padm from dying, rather than the previous version where that was one of many reasons
and genuinely believed that the Jedi were evil and plotting to take over the Republic. This
fundamental re-write was accomplished through editing and many new and revised scenes filmed
in additional pick-ups in 2004.

George Lucas has often exaggerated the amount of material he had written for the series, most of
these exaggerations stemming from the post-1978 period where the film grew into a true
phenomenon. Lucasfilm often indicated that he had written twelve stories to be filmed, and
Lucas was quick to tell how Star Wars was always Episode IV that was meant as a middle-
chapter. Lucas also began to claim that Darth Vader's parentage of Luke and redemption was
always a major part of his plan from early on, and even that this was his very first script or
treatment. As Jonathan Rinzler and Michael Kaminski show, this is demonstrably false.
Kaminski rationalizes that these exaggerations are part publicity device and part security
measure with the series and story radically changing throughout the years, Lucas would
emphasize that its current embodiment was the original intention; with the series previously
existing as different and often contradictory forms, this makes audiences view the material only
from the perspective that Lucas' wishes them to view the material, and it also may protect against
outrage that such a popular storyline was being changed post-release after being cherished by so
many.

Information on the screenplays comes from many sources. Most of the drafts of Star Wars were
leaked to the public in 1977 and have circulated since then. 1987's Annotated
Screenplays thoroughly documented the early drafts of the trilogy, and Rinzler's Making of Star
Wars supplemented this info with even more detail, including drafts which had not yet been
publicly leaked, as well as Lucas' personal notes. Information on the prequel scripts is
comparatively more scarce, but a number of making-of books give insight into the writing
process and early drafts. The prequels' drafts are largely similar to the final films due to Lucas
exploring ideas in the art department rather than on paper.
The Phantom Menace

Poster art for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.

In 1994, George Lucas began writing his Prequel Trilogy which was to be made in the coming
years. In 1997, production for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace went underway. Lucas
would revisit Tunisia, Africa and have more problems there as his Star Wars past came to haunt
him. However, this time Lucas filmed all non-location photography in Leavesden Studios,
England.
After wrapping up filming, Lucas started finishing up the special effects and other small things.
This would eventually be his last film filmed on regular film. Meanwhile, while Lucas was
wrapping up his film the first ever Star Wars: Celebration which celebrated the release of
Episode I and would be done again for Episodes II and III.
After his film was released on May 19, 1999, Lucas soon started writing Episode II while
Phantom Menace broke box-office records and grossed more than 900 million dollars
worldwide, despite poor reviews and reaction to the acting and general appearance of characters,
in particular the much maligned Jar Jar Binks.
Attack of the Clones

Poster art for Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.

Filming for Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones started at Fox Studios, Sydney, Australia
with new actors like Hayden Christensen and the return of the now famous Ewan McGregor
and Natalie Portman along with a fully digitized Yoda.
However, when the film was released, many people criticized Lucas's many love scenes and
Hayden's portrayal of a whiny Anakin. The film was grossed less than Spider-Manand was the #
2 film of the year grossing only 311 million dollars and becoming the second lowest grossing
Star Wars film of all time.
Revenge of the Sith

Poster art for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

In late 2002, Lucas began writing the screenplay for his last Star Wars film Star Wars: Episode
III Revenge of the Sith, what would be the darkest Star Wars film. Anakin turns to the dark side,
the Jedi Order is destroyed and Palpatine becomes Emperor. It would be a heart-felt moment
when the last scene was finished and the cast left on their separate ways foreseeable the premiere
in May 2005.

The film not only received the praise of the critics as well as fans. Revenge of the Sith broke
midnight, opening, 3-day and 5-day records and becoming the fastest film to reach $100 million
and $300 million. It has so far grossed $848 million and became the second highest grossing film
of 2005 in a year of let downs at the box office.
The future of Star Wars

The logo for Celebration IV

A Sequel trilogy which will be Episode VIII and IX have been announced. Episode VII, The
Force Awakens, was released on December 18, 2015. Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi is
scheduled for release on December 15, 2017, while the as-yet-untitled Star Wars: Episode IX is
scheduled for release on May 24, 2019.
Meanwhile, in the works are several Lucasfilm projects, including the anticipated Star Wars live-
action TV series and the animated series Star Wars Rebels.
In 2007, Lucas originally planned to release all six of the Star Wars films in 3D, along with a
possible "Saga boxset". Test scenes were rendered in 3D, including the Coruscant speeder
chase; Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace was released to theaters in 3D on February 10,
2012, and the entire saga on Blu-ray was released September 16, 2011.
Disney-Lucasfilm trilogy

Poster art for Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.

Main article: Sequel trilogy

On October 30, 2012, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company would acquire
Lucasfilm for US$4.05 billion, half in cash and half in shares of Disney. Privately-held
Lucasfilm would become a unit of Disney, like Marvel Entertainment and Pixar. As part of the
announcement, Disney announced that Star Wars Episode VII would be released in 2015;
additional Star Wars films would then be released every two or three years apart. Lucasfilm
already had Episode VII in early-stage development. Disney chief executive and chairman Bob
Iger told the Financial Times that the deal would slightly reduce returns to shareholders over the
next two years, but that it would become profitable for them in 2015, once Episode VII is
released.
The actual title of the film was later revealed to be Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[2] The film
received critical acclaim and went on to become the highest grossing sequel of all time. It is the
third highest grossing film of all time when not adjusted for inflation.

Teaser poster art for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi.

The second film in the trilogy, marketed as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, is set to be released
on December 15, 2017 and is written and directed by Rian Johnson.
Star Wars Legends and canon
Main articles: Star Wars Legends and Canon
On April 25, 2014, Disney announced Star Wars Legends. Effective immediately, the only Star
Wars information considered canon was material from the six original films, the the Clone
Wars film, the The Clone Wars television series, certain material from the official Star
Wars website, and material released after that date, with certain noted exceptions, generally
products that continued stories that had begun in the Expanded Universe, but had not yet
finished. Writers of future titles would be able to draw upon material from the Expanded
Universe for their stories, but this material would only be considered canon within its new
context. The Lucasfilm Story Group was created to ensure that for the first time all material
released would fit together as part of an official canon, rather than the previous system of
material released outside of the films containing obvious contradictions. A large slate of new
releases was announced, including various new novels and games.[3]
Setting
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."
 the saying at the beginning of every official Star Wars movie, show, game, etc.[src]

The introduction to every Star Wars film.

The line "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.," which appears at the beginning of
every Star Wars film, is the only way the Star Wars galaxy has been defined in relation to the
real world. It is alluding to the classic fairy tale line "Once upon a time, in a land far, far
away" and variations thereof. It may reflect that the films are to be interpreted as the myths of
the future, as opposed to literally meaning that the events take place in the past. Lucas himself
intentionally left the details open to interpretation.[4]
The saga shows an "ancient" galactic civilization thousands of years old. The setting is totally
unrelated to Earth, the Milky Way Galaxy or reality, which gives it more liberty, in a sense.
The Star Wars galaxy prominently features humans that look like those from Earth. Their
civilization was able to develop space travel, terraform, build ecumenopoleis, and build space
colonies 200,000 years "ago", according to the Expanded Universe.
The titular Star Wars originally referred to the Galactic Civil War which takes place in
the original trilogy. However, when considering the prequels and the Expanded Universe, these
events are only a portion of the millennia-spanning war between the Sith and the Jedi/Galactic
Republic.
Star Wars also merges science with supernatural elements that strongly relate to epic stories and
fairy tales (eg. magic, knights, witches, princes, and "whimsical" alien races such
as Ewoks, Wisties, etc).
While the scope of Star Wars history spans many thousands of years among all of the Star
Wars history recorded and over 36,100 years in all the fiction produced to date (from Dawn of
the Jedi to Star Wars: Legacy), the films span only two generations.
Later novels from a series dubbed The New Jedi Order opened up the Star Wars setting with
alien beings known as the Yuuzhan Vong that came from a different galaxy, much to the surprise
of some fans. All species and events prior to this series considered only one single galaxy.
Franchise
Films
"I've never seen the movies as any kind of phenomenon because I have to live with them
and work with them and they're just another movie that I make. It's no harder or easier
than anything else I do. It's just that they became really popular for whatever reason
while something else didn't. But I like all the movies I make, and I put just as much work
into all of them. And it's hard to tell why some of them really become popular and some
of them don't. I mean I know the basic rules, yet when something like Star Wars becomes
such an incredible phenomenon there's no way to explain it."
George Lucas[src]
The original trilogy (Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope).
The prequel trilogy (Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace) under the mysterious Darth
Sidious, who secretly controls both sides. The prequel trilogy specifically tells the tale of Anakin
Skywalker, Luke and Leia's father, a former Tatooine slave who is trained as a Jedi after the
Battle of Naboo but gradually turns to evil and becomes Darth Vader.
The films draw extensively on archetypal figures and themes of classical literature. They are
based on the concept of "the Force," an energy that can be controlled by someone born with
innate ability and trained to perfect his, her, or its skill. The Force can be used to move objects,
read or control minds, or even influence the outcome of large battles. A person trained in the use
of the "light side" of the Force for good is a Jedi; someone trained in using the "dark side" for
evil is a Sith.
The original idea for Star Wars was conceived in the early 1970s and went through many
revisions, providing plenty of material for the films. The original Star Wars movie (Episode IV)
was first released in 1977, but the novelization was released six months earlier, in 1976. The
sixth Star Wars film (Episode III) was released in 2005. There were originally to be nine films in
three trilogies (some accounts claim twelve films in four trilogies); however, Lucas has stated
that he does not intend to make any more Star Wars films after Episode III.
On October 30, 2012 The Walt Disney Company along with the announcement of the acquisition
of Lucasfilm, announced plans for the production of a new series of films, beginning with Star
Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakensin 2015, and plans for additional films. George Lucas
announced he would not be directing the films but would serve as a "creative consultant." There
has been no indication as to what the content of the films would be.
All of the original films were shot at, among other locations, Elstree Studios. Episode I was
filmed at Leavesden Studiosand the subsequent prequels were filmed
in Sydney, Australia. Tunisia has served as the location for filming scenes set on the
desert planet Tatooine.

Together, all seven movies in the main saga have made a grand total of $6,382,255,249
worldwide at the box office with two more on the way.

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (May 25, 1977)

Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (May 21, 1980)
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi (May 25, 1983)
Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (May 19, 1999)
Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (May 16, 2002)
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (May 19, 2005)
Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens (December 18, 2015)
Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi (December 15, 2017)
Star Wars: Episode IX (2019)
Re-releases
See also Special Edition, Star Wars home video releases
George Lucas has tinkered repeatedly with the original trilogy. For the Special Editions of
Episodes IV through VI, the films were extensively cleaned up and restored, and Lucas took this
opportunity to make a number of changes, adding previously cut scenes and new effects. The
Special Editions were released in theaters in early 1997, and on VHS later that year. Further
changes were made for the films' initial DVD release in September 2004. In 2006, Lucas finally
released the original trilogy in unaltered form on DVD.
At a ShoWest convention in 2005, George Lucas demonstrated new technology and stated that
he was planning to release all six films in a new 3D film format, beginning with A New Hope in
2007. This did not materialize, but on September 28, 2010, the official site announced the 3D
release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace coming to theaters in 2012.
Lucas also hinted in the past that he would release his definitive, often called "archival" editions
of all six Star Wars films in one set on a next-generation home-video format in 2007.[source?] This
release was to coincide with, and celebrate, the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars saga. These
"archival" editions were never released, or announced.
The Walt Disney Studios has owned the digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films
excluding A New Hopesince April 2015.[5]
Expanded Universe
Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

Main article: Star Wars Legends

The Expanded Universe (or EU) is the continuation of the movies. It plays a major role in the
storyline. One can read books from the prequel-era, between the movies, or post-Episode VI.
There are also several books dealing with the lives of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian just before
the movies. There are even books about the briefly shown Wedge Antilles. Some notable
characters include the twins Jaina and Jacen Solo, the strong but angry Mara Jade, the pilot-
turned-Jedi Corran Horn, and the tactical genius Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The books set during or after the Star Wars Original Trilogy follow Luke Skywalker, Princess
Leia, Han Solo, and other minor characters, as well as the growth of the New Republic. The
Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers is the first book chronologically set after Return of the Jedi, but
the first Expanded Universe story written was Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
In the Expanded Universe, the Galactic Empire suppresses alien species because most Imperials
are xenophobic, but this idea appears in the films only subtly (or, arguably, not at all). The idea
of the Empire enslaving aliens is an analogy to racism. In the Young Jedi Knights series, there is
even an example of reverse discrimination, when a group of aliens form the "Diversity Alliance"
seeks revenge on all Humans, by means of a viral plague, for the crimes of the Empire. Young
Jedi Knights also deals with drug abuse, the homeless, and effects of disability; it is more prone
to discussing modern issues than any other Star Wars series.
The post-Episode VI EU has often been criticized as being too dark and depressing, such as
the Yuuzhan Vong invasionthat kills several major characters, and trillions of deaths in the war.
Critics often point to the fact that George Lucas wanted a saga with an ultimately happy ending,
yet the current direction of the EU indicates a revival of the Sith that even Luke Skywalker
cannot stop.
Story
The Saga chronologically begins with the so-called Big Bang, the creation of the universe.
Billions of years the galaxy was slowly formed, and there are novels as the Darth Bane
trilogy, The Old Republic: Revan, and Knight Errant, in which both the Galactic Republic and
the Jedi Order exist. Thousands of years later, there are series about the training of Obi-Wan
Kenobi and the Naboo Crisis. This is where the story truly begins, although numerous games and
comics have been set before.
The story from then revolves around the Skywalker family and their friends and adversaries. The
Skywalkers are involved in every important event from now. They go through numerous wars,
the last known being Cade Skywalker and the Second Imperial Civil War.
Radio adaptation
Star Wars the radio adaptation, NPR 1981, was followed by adaptations of the next two
films of the series. These adaptations were written by science fiction author Brian Daley,
who also wrote three novels detailing the adventures of Han Solo and Chewbacca prior to
their appearance in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Related movies
There are five official feature-length works besides the primary films of the two trilogies.

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
The first three of these are live-action, and were originally made for TV, though the
1984 Ewok film was shown in theaters in some locations outside the U.S. Star Wars: The Clone
Wars is an animated theatrical feature kicking off the 2008 TV series. Rogue One is a live-action
stand-alone film.
Chewbacca, along with Luke, Leia, Han, and the droids, celebrates Life Day by the Tree of Life in The Star Wars Holiday
Special.

The Star Wars Holiday Special became famous for featuring Boba Fett's first appearance. An
originally minor detail, the Wookiee food wookiee-ookiees became a cult symbol in the Star
Wars fan universe, spawning plays on its name such as wookiee-cookiees (a Star Warsthemed
dessert) and the term "Wookiee Hooky" (the act of skipping school or work to see a Star
Wars film, particularly if it has just been released).
Additionally, other filmmakers with no connection to Lucasfilm have made films that salute,
document, parody, or unofficially extend Star Wars.
Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987) parodies Star Wars and some other science fiction works.
The documentary The People vs. George Lucas is a platform for fans to talk about their take on
many Star Wars matters.
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards is a Lucasfilm-sponsored contest of short films made
by Star Wars fans about, referencing, and parodying the Star Wars phenomenon.
Animated TV shows
Star Wars: Clone Wars television series official poster.

Star Wars: Droids

Star Wars: Ewoks
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars Rebels
Star Wars Detours (postponed)
Four cartoon series have been based on Star Wars. The first two began in 1985, Clone
Wars in 2003 and The Clone Wars in 2008. Ewoks featured the adventures of the Ewoks prior
to Return of the Jedi. Droids featured the adventures of C-3POand R2-D2 between Star Wars:
Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
Live-action TV shows
Star Wars: Underworld (postponed)

A live-action TV show was announced by LucasFilm in 2008, but little more has been heard
since then.

In 1984-1985, George Lucas executive produced two live television episodes of a short-
series called "Ewok Adventures." These take place before the Battle of Endor and follow the
brief adventures of the Towani family after they are marooned on Endor. The two episodes
were named "The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage" and "Ewoks: The Battle for
Endor", and Warwick Davis returned to once again play the plucky Ewok Wicket W.
 Warrick. One odd thing in this series was that Wicket was taught to speak English, an ability
he did not reveal at all during the entire Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi.
Books
See also: List of books
Star Warsbased fiction predates the release of the first movie, with the novelization of A New
Hope (by Alan Dean Foster but credited to George Lucas) released some months before the film
itself. Foster also wrote the first original Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the 1978
publication of which inaugurated a very successful literary spin-off franchise.
The six Star Wars movies have provided a basis for over a hundred novels. The novels have been
officially authorized by Lucasfilm, and were previously published by Bantam Books (with a few
early titles published by Ballantine), though Del Rey now holds the contract again. The stories
told in these books reach back thousands of years before The Phantom Menace to several
generations after Return of the Jedi. Books authorized by Lucas are written by fans of the films,
and are part of a collection known as Expanded Universe. The first books considered to be part
of the Expanded Universe began to appear in the late 1970s.
The Expanded Universe experienced a revolution in the New Jedi Order (NJO) series, which
recently concluded with The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force. The NJO tells the story of a
horrific invasion by the extragalactic species known as the Yuuzhan Vong, and includes the
passing of several well known and loved characters.
Some fans of the original Star Wars movies reject the literary works of the Expanded Universe,
and insist that only the films and the statements made by George Lucas interpreting his own
works can be accepted as canonical. However, numerous statements made by employees at
Lucasfilm Ltd. and comments made by Lucas himself indicate that a majority of the works of the
Expanded Universe are indeed part of the official universe.
Most of the novels that have been written take place after the events of the films, with a few that
take place between the movies, and a growing number set before the films. For some fans, these
can be more exciting stories, as they provide narratives for many characters who only have a
minor roles, or are only briefly seen, in the movies. One of particular note is Steve
Perry's Shadows of the Empire, which is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the
Jedi. In addition to focusing on relatively minor characters, it bridges some events between the
two films. It also includes more scenes of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine scheming
together, offering a greater understanding of their relationship (the nature of which was further
explored in Episodes I through III).
Perhaps the most widely acclaimed contribution is the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, which
many fans had hoped would be the basis for Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Some consider these
novels to have captured the essence of the original movie trilogy.
Also, a few elements first introduced in the Expanded Universe were later included in the films.
The best examples are Coruscant, Boba Fett, and Aayla Secura.
Aside from books providing narratives, there are also reference books which detail things about
the Star Wars universe in a "non-fiction" style, revealing details that cannot fit into a story.
Examples include The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, Inside the Worlds of, and the Visual
Dictionaries.
Comic books and strips
See also: List of comics

Star Wars: Empire to the Last Man cover.

Marvel Comics published adaptations of the original trilogy as well as a Star Wars comic book
series which lasted from 1977 to 1986, a total of 107 issues and 3 annuals. A wide variety of
creators worked on this series, including Archie Goodwin, Howard Chaykin, Al
Williamson, Carmine Infantino, Walter Simonson, Michael Golden, Chris Claremont, Whilce
Portacio, Mary Jo Duffy, and Ron Frenz. In the 1980s, as part of their Star Comics line oriented
towards young children, Marvel also published the short-lived series Ewoks and Droids, based
on the Saturday morning cartoons.
Star Wars was also a daily newspaper comic strip from 1979 to 1984, written for the bulk of its
run by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Al Williamson.
Beginning in the 1990s, Dark Horse Comics has published a large number of original adventures
set in the Star Wars universe. As of 2006, these mainly include Star Wars: Republic, Star Wars:
Empire, Star Wars Tales, Star Wars: Jedi, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star
Wars: Legacy. Dark Horse has also published collections of the Marvel series in seven volumes
and the comic strip as Classic Star Wars.
Games
Since 1983, over 120 video games have been published bearing the name of Star Wars,
beginning with 'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back' published for the Atari 2600 by Parker
Brothers.
The first games based on the franchise were released on the Atari 2600, the very first, The
Empire Strikes Back (1982), the player drove a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth,
destroying AT-AT walkers. While simplistic, the game captured the essence of the movie as well
as technology allowed. Several other games appeared, like Return of the Jedi: Death Star
Battle (1982), where the player controlled the Millennium Falcon in a mission to destroy the
second Death Star, and Jedi Arena (1983), the first game to attempt to simulate a lightsaber
battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the scene in A New Hope, where Luke Skywalker trains
with a seeker). Also in 1983, Star Wars was released based on A New Hope. In this game the
player takes on the role of Luke Skywalker towards the end of the film in which Luke battles
through many TIE fighters in an attempt to destroy the first Death Star.
Due to the video game crash of 1983, which killed the home console market, no further games
based on the franchise were released until 1991, when the platformer Star Wars was released for
both the NES and Game Boy, and one year later, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reused the
engine with the plotline of the fifth episode of the saga. It would be still in 1992 that Super Star
Wars was released for the SNES (the Super prefix was often used in remakes of 8-bit games),
followed by the remaining games in the trilogy: Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (1993)
and Super Star Wars: Return of Jedi (1994).
Other early titles include the game Star Wars for the Nintendo Entertainment System (published
by JVC) and three other titles for the Atari 2600.
Video game pioneer Atari produced arcade games based on the original trilogy, beginning
with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, which were both flight simulator-style games that
utilized vector graphics. The third, Return of the Jedi, used more traditional raster graphics and a
'3/4' perspective.
Star Wars: X-Wing was the first PC game of the 'new generation' of officially released-by-
LucasArts games in 1993. It returns to the space fighter combat gameplay not seen since the
Atari arcade games. Players generally played as a pilotfor the Rebel Alliance, completing a
variety of goals, culminating in the destruction of the Death Star. This game had sequels, in the
form of Star Wars: TIE Fighter, and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance.
The longest running series of computer games is the groundbreaking Dark Forces series.
This first person shooter series began in 1995 with Star Wars: Dark Forces. The next in the
series was Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, which allowed the player to play as a Jedi.
The third game in the Dark Forces series, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, focused more
on a third person Jedi adventure than the previous games. And the fourth and latest release
was Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which originated as an expansion pack for Jedi
Outcast, but evolved into a game of its own.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron N64 box cover

Another long running video game series began with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for
the Nintendo 64 and continued in Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader and Star Wars:
Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike for the Nintendo GameCube. The first title was also available
for PCs, and all were developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts. Rogue Squadron
III featured emulated versions of the original Atari Star Wars arcade games.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, published in 2003, won "Game of the Year" recognition
from several prominent gaming magazines, websites, etc. A sequel, Star Wars: Knights of the
Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, was released for the Xbox in December of 2004 and the PC in
February of 2005. Bioware released a MMORPG sequel to KOTOR I & II called "Star Wars:
The Old Republic" on December 20, 2011, set approximately 300 years after the events of
KOTOR II.
Star Wars Galaxies, an MMORPG developed by Sony, was released on June 26, 2003 in the
United States, November 7 in Europe, December 23, 2004 in Japan, and in 2006 in Australia.
The game was based after the events of the Battle of Yavin, and allowed players to create
characters of a variety of species and specializations (such as Bounty Hunter and Smuggler) and
choose to ally themselves with the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire.
Star Wars: Battlefront was released in 2004 and is a first/third person shooter game capable of
online play where you can play in both trilogies, as all factions, in many different battlefields. Its
sequels, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron and Star Wars
Battlefront: Elite Squadron were released in 2005, 2007, and 2009 respectively.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a tactical shooter computer game featuring the elite
commandos of Delta Squad and set during the Clone Wars. It was released on March 1, 2005.
Star Wars: Empire at War, an RTS game, was developed by Petroglyph Games and released in
February 16, 2006, and an explansion pack Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption was
released in 2007
LEGO Star Wars, a Lego spinoff series in which the characters of Star Wars and most other
vehicles and objects are made of LEGO bricks. The second game of the series is LEGO Star
Wars II: The Original Trilogy. The third game of this series, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete
Saga, combines the first two games. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is a LEGO version of
the Clone Wars animated series, taking place during seasons 1 and 2
Two role playing games set in the Star Wars universe have been published: a d6-based game
from West End Gamesand a Wizards of the Coast game using the d20 system on which their
popular Dungeons & Dragons is based.
Characters
The plot revolves around a small team of certain individuals. The Star Wars movies are unique
in providing cast names even to minor characters, whose name is not even mentioned in the
dialogue lines, even non-speaking ones that appear for few moments. The characters' backstory
or importance is revealed in the Expanded Universe sources. Such examples include Boba
Fett and Mon Mothma.
See Category:Individuals for more extensive listings.
Major
Admiral Ackbar | Admiral Piett | Anakin Skywalker | Bail Organa | Beru Lars | Boba Fett | C-
3PO | Chewbacca | Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus | Darth Maul | Darth Sidious/Palpatine | Darth
Vader | General Grievous | Han Solo | Jabba the Hutt| Jango Fett | Jar Jar Binks | Lando
Calrissian | Luke Skywalker | Mace Windu | Nute Gunray | Obi-Wan Kenobi | Owen
Lars | Padm Amidala | Princess Leia | Qui-Gon Jinn | R2-D2 | Shmi
Skywalker | Tarkin | Watto | Yoda
Minor
Bounty hunters | Droids | Imperials | Jedi | Rebels | Separatists | Sith | Clones
Cast and crew
The cast of the movies feature notable actors. Many of them are only guest-starring in brief, even
non-speaking roles, like Sofia Coppola and Keisha Castle-Hughes. Notable supporting roles
played by acclaimed actors include Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Oliver
Ford Davies. In the prequel trilogy, professional models did the non-speaking minor character
roles.
Cast of Star Wars
Crew of Star Wars
Themes
Star Wars stresses the self-destructive nature of anger and hate, summed up in Yoda's words
("Fear is the path to the dark side: fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to
suffering" (helpinfo)) as well as placing one's feelings for certain people aside. For example, Luke
Skywalker is told to remain on Dagobah to complete his training rather than rescue his friends
from Cloud City, because doing so will "destroy all for which they have fought and suffered."
Star Wars seems to advocate democracy over dictatorship, although it offers no alternative
for the corrupt Republic'sgovernment. Some people believe that Star Wars instead
advocates monarchy over democracy, although this is not supported by much evidence in the
films, as the only monarchs portrayed are democratically elected ones. Lucas has identified the
idea of a democracy becoming a dictatorship as the fundamental idea of the saga. He has stated
that the saga raises such ideas as the people giving up their power in desperation, and betrayal by
their leaders who may think they are doing the right thing while sacrificing freedom. In this
way, Star Wars is a cautionary tale in which Lucas, by his own admission, warns people of the
danger that is always present to democracy and freedom and has been demonstrated throughout
history.
There appear to be anti-technological messages in the films - the primitive Ewoks defeating
technological adversaries, and the general idea of technology opposed to humanity - fitting with
Lucas' vision. Lucas explicitly attributed the Ewoks defeat of the Galactic Empire to the exploits
of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (otherwise known as the Vietcong) that operated
during the Vietnam War. This site explains this theme and others in its analysis of the writing
of Star Wars.
The galactic setting of Star Wars is never given a name and is called simply "the galaxy." Since
the characters never venture beyond the galaxy and the power of both the Republic and the
Empire ends at its borders, the galaxy can be said to serve as a microcosm of both Earth as a
whole and an individual nation.
The main story arc in the films traces the rise, fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker,
mirrored by political events occurring on a galactic scale. As Anakin is seduced by the dark side,
the Republic slides into despotism and war; when Anakin reclaims the Jedi values of peace and
justice, the evil Empire that supplanted the Republic is overthrown by the Rebel Alliance.
Lists
List of planets
List of weapons
List of locations
List of organizations
See also
Timeline of galactic history
Language
The galaxy
Star Wars Technical Commentaries
TheForce.Net
The Force
Wilhelm scream
Wookieepedia
Notes and references
1. Briers, Michael (December 29, 2016). Star Wars Overtakes James Bond To Become Third Highest-
Grossing Movie Franchise. We Got This Covered. Retrieved on December 30, 2016.
2. @starwars (Star Wars) on Twitter. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has completed principal
photography. #StarWarsVII #TheForceAwakens
3. The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns a New Page on StarWars.com (backup

link on Archive.org)

4. {{{text}}} on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)

 5. The Star Wars Digital Movie Collection Coming April 10 on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Star Wars
Official Site on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
Official Site (Germany)
The Star Wars Digital Movie Collection Coming April 10 on StarWars.com(backup
link on Archive.org)
The Star Wars Digital Movie Collection - Trailer on the official Star Wars YouTube
Channel
Star Wars at the Internet Movie Database
Star Wars on Wikipedia
@starwars (StarWars.com) on Twitter
TheForce.Net, one of the largest and oldest Star Wars fan sites
HoloNet News, A "news" website based on the Star Wars prequels. It brought readers
"current" events from the Expanded Universe of Star Wars. Inactive as of the release of Star
Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.
4loms, A fan describing his trip to many of the filming locations.
starwarslocations, A site devoted to Star Wars filming locations.
Starkiller: The Internet home of the original drafts & screenplays of the Star Wars saga
Star Wars sources and analogues on Wikipedia, An article examining cultural influences
on George Lucas
Star Wars Origins
The Secret History of Star Wars
Star Wars on Facebook
Star Wars on Instagram
Star Wars on Tumblr
Star Wars on YouTube

 Episodic films
I: The Phantom Menace II: Attack of the Clones III: Revenge of the Sith
IV: A New Hope V: The Empire Strikes Back VI: Return of the Jedi
VII: The Force Awakens VIII: The Last Jedi IX
Spin-off films
Canon:
The Clone Wars Rogue One Han Solo film Untitled film
Legends:
Holiday Special Caravan of Courage The Battle for Endor
Television series
Canon:
The Clone Wars Rebels Forces of Destiny
Legends:
Droids Ewoks Clone Wars
Other:
Underworld
Other media
Audio dramas Books Comics Video games
Multimedia projects Parodies Roleplaying games Theme park attractions
[hide] [edit]

In other languages

Dansk
Deutsch

Espaol
Franais

Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
Latina
Magyar

Norsk (bokml)
Polski
Portugus

Slovenina
Svenska
Trke

Categories:
Social media citations without screenshots
Real-world articles
Semi-protected articles
Move protected articles
Pages needing citation
Real-world terms
Star Wars
Recent Wiki Activity

The Line of Duty

Dalvus 58 seconds ago
Cade Skywalker
Lewisr 27 minutes ago
Kol Skywalker
Lewisr 29 minutes ago
The Ballad of 264
Dalvus 31 minutes ago

Help us grow Wookieepedia!

GET STARTED

Games

Movies

 TV

Explore Wikis

Follow Us

Overview
About
Careers
Press
Contact
Wikia.org
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Global Sitemap
Local Sitemap
Community
Community Central
Support
Fan Contributor Program
WAM Score
Help
Can't find a community you love? Create your own and start something epic.

START A WIKI

Community Apps
Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat

Advertise
Media Kit
Contact
Wookieepedia is a FANDOM Movies Community. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.
The Greatest Adventure Stories, Ranked
Destiny 2 Sept Sci-Fi Adam Ruins