This article is about the film series and media franchise. For the 1977 film, see Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. For other uses, see Star Wars (disambiguation).
The Star Wars title card/logo, as seen in all films
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy's final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released. The three films were also released at three-year intervals, with the final film released on May 19, 2005.
Currently, the overall box office revenue generated by the Star Wars films has totaled at $4.49 billion,[1] making it the third-highest-grossing film series,[2] behind only the Harry Potter and James Bond films.
The Star Wars film series has spawned a media franchise including books, television series, video games, and comic books. These supplements to the film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe. These media kept the franchise going in the interim between the film trilogies. In 2008, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released to theaters as the first-ever worldwide theatrical Star Wars film outside of the main trilogies. It was the franchise's first animated film, and was intended as an introduction to the Expanded Universe series of the same name, a 3D CGI animated series based on a previous 2D animated series of a similar name.
Contents [hide]
1 Setting
2 Theatrical films
2.1 Plot overview
2.1.1 Cast and characters
2.2 Themes
2.3 Technical information
2.4 Production history
2.4.1 Original trilogy
2.4.2 Prequel trilogy
2.4.3 Sequel trilogy
2.5 Future releases
3 Box office performance
4 Critical reaction
4.1 Academy Awards
5 Expanded Universe
5.1 Other films
5.2 Animated series
5.3 Literature
5.4 Games
5.5 Fan works
6 Attractions
7 Legacy
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Setting
"Star Wars galaxy" redirects here. For other uses, see Star Wars Galaxy (disambiguation).
The events depicted in Star Wars media take place in a fictional galaxy. Many species of alien creatures (often humanoid) are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are generally built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a Galactic Republic, later reorganized as the Galactic Empire.
One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the "Force", an omnipresent energy that can be harnessed by those with that ability, known as Force-sensitives. It is described in the first produced film as "an energy field created by all living things [that] surrounds us, penetrates us, [and] binds the galaxy together."[3] The Force allows users to perform various supernatural feats (such as telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition, and mind control) and can amplify certain physical traits, such as speed and reflexes; these abilities vary between characters and can be improved through training. While the Force can be used for good, it has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression, and malevolence. The six films feature the Jedi, who use the Force for good, and the Sith, who use the dark side for evil in an attempt to take over the galaxy. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, many dark side users are Dark Jedi rather than Sith, mainly because of the "Rule of Two" (see Sith Origin).[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Theatrical films
The film series began with Star Wars, released on May 25, 1977. This was followed by two sequels: The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983. The opening crawl of the sequels disclosed that they were numbered as "Episode V" and "Episode VI" respectively, though the films were generally advertised solely under their subtitles. Though the first film in the series was simply titled Star Wars, with its 1981 re-release it had the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added to remain consistent with its sequel, and to establish it as the middle chapter of a continuing saga.[9]
In 1997, to correspond with the 20th anniversary of Star Wars, Lucas released "Special Editions" of the original trilogy to theaters. The re-releases featured alterations to the original films, primarily motivated by the improvement of CGI and other special effects technologies, which allowed visuals that were not possible to achieve at the time of the original filmmaking. Lucas continued to make changes to the films for subsequent releases, such as the first ever DVD release of the original trilogy on September 21, 2004 and the first ever Blu-ray release of all six films on September 16, 2011.[10]
More than two decades after the release o
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