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| Genre | Space opera · Multi-genre |
| Created by | George Lucas |
| First work | Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (novel, 1976) |
| First film | Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) |
| Owner | Lucasfilm (The Walt Disney Company, since 2012) |
| Continuities | Canon · Legends |
| Website | starwars.com |
Star Wars is a multi-genre multimedia franchise created by George Lucas. It officially began with the novel Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker in 1976, followed by the original live-action film Star Wars in 1977. Since then it has grown into a vast storytelling universe of feature films, television series, video games, novels, comic books, and merchandise — one of the most successful and influential franchises ever made.
The heart of the story is the Skywalker Saga, nine episodic films that follow three generations of the Skywalker family through wars that decide the fate of an entire galaxy. Lucas built the saga on very old ideas: classical mythology, the "hero's journey," and the endless struggle between good and evil. The franchise is owned by Lucasfilm, and through it The Walt Disney Company, which bought Lucasfilm from Lucas in 2012.
1 History✎
1.1 The original Star Wars✎
After his 1973 hit American Graffiti made him famous, George Lucas set out to make a "swashbuckling" space adventure. He first tried to buy the rights to the old Flash Gordon serials, and when that failed, he built his own universe instead. His biggest influences were the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa — especially the 1958 film The Hidden Fortress, which inspired telling the story through two humble droids — and the mythology scholar Joseph Campbell, whose book The Hero with a Thousand Faces gave the sprawling story its shape. Even Darth Vader's black helmet was designed to look like a samurai helmet.
Making the film was a struggle. Lucas cast unknown actors — Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford — and had to build a special effects company from scratch, Industrial Light & Magic, because the big studios had shut theirs down. Filming in Tunisia was hit by the country's biggest rainstorm in years, the studio nearly canceled the project, and early cuts of the movie looked so rough that most of Lucas's friends thought it would fail.
Instead, Star Wars opened on 1977. 05. 25. and became the biggest hit in film history up to that time, earning over $260 million in its first run. Lines stretched around the block for months, toy shelves emptied, and the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning six.
1.2 Sequels and the Expanded Universe✎
The Empire Strikes Back (1980), directed by Irvin Kershner, gave the saga its most famous twist: Darth Vader revealing that he is Luke Skywalker's father. The secret was guarded so closely that actor David Prowse was given a fake line on set, and the real one was only recorded later by James Earl Jones. Return of the Jedi (1983) finished the trilogy — it was even filmed under the fake title "Blue Harvest" to keep fans away.
When the movies ended, the story kept going in books and comics, a body of work that became known as the Expanded Universe. Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire hit the bestseller lists and sparked a publishing renaissance, introducing beloved characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn. Dark Horse Comics, video games, and hundreds of novels followed over the next two decades.
1.3 Prequels and Special Editions✎
In 1997, Lucas re-released the original trilogy as "Special Editions" with updated effects and new scenes — changes that some fans loved and others still argue about. He then returned to directing with the prequel trilogy: The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005). The prequels told the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker, the gifted Jedi who falls to the dark side and becomes Darth Vader. Reviews at the time were mixed, but the generation that grew up with the prequels embraces them deeply.
1.4 The Disney era✎
Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company in 2012, and the franchise entered a new age. In April 2014, Lucasfilm reset the timeline: the old Expanded Universe was renamed "Legends" and set aside, and everything released afterward became part of one unified canon. Disney completed the Skywalker Saga with the sequel trilogy (2015–2019), released standalone films like Rogue One, and moved the story to streaming with hit series like The Mandalorian and Andor. After a seven-year break from theaters, The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) brought Star Wars back to the big screen, with Starfighter set to follow on 2027. 05. 28.
2 Setting✎
Star Wars takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," among countless planets, alien species, and droids. Unlike the clean, shiny future of earlier science fiction, Lucas wanted a "used" universe — props were rubbed with dirt so ships and cities looked lived-in and worn.
Binding the galaxy together is the Force, an energy field that grants special individuals extraordinary powers. The Jedi follow its light side to defend peace; the Sith embrace the dark side to seize power. Their wars — between republic and empire, freedom and tyranny — repeat across generations, which is exactly the point: Lucas described Star Wars as a classic story humanity keeps retelling because power corrupts, and we keep making the same mistakes.
3 The franchise today✎
The Skywalker Saga's nine films remain the core, joined by standalone films, more than a dozen television series, and the large-scale publishing project The High Republic, set centuries before the films. Video games stretch from 1980s arcade cabinets to Jedi: Fallen Order and Outlaws, and fans can walk through Galaxy's Edge at Disney's theme parks. The complete map of films, series, and games is in the navigation box at the top of this page.