Star Wars

Star Wars, series of motion pictures written and produced by American filmmaker George Lucas, chronicling a drawn-out struggle between good and evil taking place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” The highly successful science-fiction series redefined the way movies are made and marketed.

Released in 1977, the first Star Wars movie featured a cast of then little-known actors (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill) and what were considered state-of-the-art special effects at the time. The movie was subtitled A New Hope and seemed to begin in the middle of a story—Lucas had actually written out material that preceded the events of the movie, but he chose to start by filming “Episode IV” because it had the most compelling storyline. When it became a huge hit, setting box office records, Lucas made Episodes V (The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) and VI (Return of the Jedi, 1983). Both movies were also wildly successful.

After a 16-year break Lucas returned with the long-awaited prequels: Episode I, The Phantom Menace (1999), followed by Episode II, Attack of the Clones (2002), and Episode III, Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Although not universally loved by critics, the six Star Wars films generated billions of dollars in ticket revenue and even more in sales of related merchandise. Lucas said Revenge of the Sith was his final Star Wars feature film. However, he was already planning numerous books, television series, and related spinoffs to the series.

For more information, see the articles on the individual films.