Star Wars

Star Wars is an American science-fiction media franchise created by George Lucas. As of December 2019, nine movies in the main series have been made by Lucasfilm Ltd, released by 20th Century Fox, and distributed by Disney.

Star Wars has been so popular that there have been Star Wars books, video games, television shows, toys, spin-off movies/television series and more. It is also known for its iconic music by John Williams. With influences such as, Starcrash, The Man Who Saved The World, etc.

Settings

'The Force' 
The Force is a mystical power. Those who can harness if for good follow a religion known as the Jedi. It is a belief that the force flows through every living thing. In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi:

People who can control the Force with their minds get a number of psychic powers, such telepathy (reading others thoughts), telekenesis (moving things with their minds), precognition (knowing about things before they happen), mind control (telling people commands they must follow), and the ability to heal others (they are healed by transferring ones life force to another to heal there wounds)

The Jedi and the Sith 
The Jedi are a group of beings who use the Force to bring peace and harmony to people, planets, and cultures. They are trained to use the force for good purposes. They are sworn enemies with another group called the Sith.

The Sith are a group of beings who use the force as a power source; they are trained to use the force to gain ultimate power. The Sith normally use the force to gain power in battles with their enemy who are the Jedi. They also use the force to bring destruction to the universe and anything in their way. They are the antagonists, and they usually use red lightsabers in contrast to the variety of colors used by the Jedi. There are usually only two Sith, a master and an apprentice.

Lightsaber 

The lightsaber is a dangerous and powerful weapon used by the Jedi and the Sith. It can be described simply as a light sword. These weapons are very special to a Jedi or Sith. They are custom built to special specifications by the Jedi or Sith. The Sith tend to take a Jedi's lightsaber as a prize if they win the battle. Many epic battles have been fought with lightsabers between the Jedi and the Sith. For the lightsaber to be a weapon it is powered by a special crystal called a kyber crystal.The kyber crystal comes in many different cololrs such as: Red, white, yellow, orange, and many more. The reason it is powerful and dangerous is that when someone touches the blade, one gets burned straight away.

Story 
The main nine movies (Episodes 1 to 9) are about the Skywalker family. However, the story is told from the point of view of R2-D2 and C-3PO, two droid (robots), who appear in every movie.

Episodes 1—3 
Two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn travel to a remote desert planet and find a young boy named Anakin Skywalker. They free Anakin from slavery and take him to learn the ways of the Force and to become a Jedi. 

Although Jedi are not allowed to get married, as an adult, Anakin falls in love with Senator Padmé Amidala and they get married. Anakin's later has nightmares of Padmé dying in childbirth so he asks for help from the evil Darth Sidious. Sidious teaches Anakin to become a Sith and Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Sidious uses his army to kill all of the Jedi, with only Yoda and Obi-Wan surviving. 

Padmé gives birth to two twins: Luke and Leia, who Vader doesn't know about. After birth, the twins are separated to prevent Vader and the Dark Side from finding and hurting the children. Padmé has died shortly after giving birth. Obi-Wan Kenobi sends Luke to a planet called Tatooine to live with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Leia is raised by Senator Bail Organa of the planet Alderaan; she is called Princess Leia Organa.

Episodes 4—6 
Nineteen years later, Luke meets Obi-Wan, Han Solo and Chewbacca. They rescue Princess Leia, who has been captured by Darth Vader and the evil Galactic Empire.  After Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan, Luke travels to a remote swamp planet to learn the Jedi ways from Yoda. Luke becomes a Jedi and rescues Han Solo from a gangster called Jabba the Hutt. 

They join the Rebellion and help to fight the Empire. Vader tells Luke that he is his father. Luke and Leia soon find out that they are siblings. Luke meets Darth Sidious, who is now the Evil Emperor. However, Darth Vader turns good again after Sidious begins to torture Luke. Vader kills Sidious and dies.

Episodes 7—9 
Thirty years later, however, the Empire's remnants have come together to form First Order. However, the New Republic does not believe that it is a threat. Those who do believe form the Resistance, led by Leia. During this time Leia has married Han Solo. They had a child, named Ben, but Ben was corrupted by the First Order and a dark-side force user named Snoke and is now called Kylo Ren. Luke spent the thirty years rebuilding the Jedi but has now vanished because Kylo Ren turned evil and killed the others. 

Rey, a desert scavenger who doesn't know her family, fights with Han against the First Order, but Kylo Ren kills Han. Rey joins the Resistance and manages to find Luke, who refuses to teach her to become a Jedi. Meanwhile, the First Order has destroyed the New Republic and is chasing the Resistance through space. Luke finally accepts to teach Rey how to be a Jedi. Rey develops a Force-connection with Kylo Ren. She is convinced she can turn him good so she goes to his spaceship. He brings her before  Supreme Leader Snoke. Kylo Ren kills Snoke so that he can become Supreme Leader. 

A year later, the Resistance finds out that Darth Sidious has come back from the dead and he is the true leader of the First Order. Rey, Finn (a former stormtrooper), Poe Dameron, Chewbacca and some of their other friends go on a hunt to find the map leading to the planet that Sidious is hiding on. Rey finds out that Sidious is her grandfather. Kylo Ren finally turns good after his mother, Princess Leia dies. Kylo Ren and Rey use the help of the spirits of every dead Jedi to kill Sidious once and for all. Kylo Ren dies shortly after, meaning that all members of the Skywalker family are dead.

Rey returns to Tatooine, the planet where both Anakin and Luke grew up. She buries their lightsabers and when a stranger asks for her name, she says "Rey Skywalker".

Major characters 

There are many more characters in the series who appear in the movies, books and television series such as Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger and Jyn Erso.

Star Wars vehicles
X-wing Fighter
TIE Fighter
Millennium Falcon

Major planets in the Star Wars universe

 Tatooine
 Naboo
 Coruscant
 Jakku
 Alderaan
 Endor
 Bespin
 Hoth

Expanded universe 
Many books, short movies, and video games have been produced that deal with events that do not happen in the original movies. They also tell more about things that did happen in the movies. For example, the book Death Star tells about the building and destruction of the space station from the original movie. It tells much about things seen in that movie but from the point of view of the people on the station. A different example is that in the Expanded Universe, sometimes the Sith are shown as the protagonists. Most of the stories in the Expanded Universe are about the rebuilding of the Republic after the Empire's defeat.  They are set anywhere from the early Sith Wars which happened 5,000 years before Episode VI to more than one hundred years after Episode VI.

Media

Movies 
There are currently eleven live-action movies and one animated movie. 

Nine of the movies are labelled as "episodes". These movies are part of the "Skywalker Saga", which is the central story of the franchise and follows the story of Darth Vader. Episodes 4—6 form the Original Trilogy (1977—1983), Episodes 1—3 form the Prequel Trilogy (1999—2005) and Episodes 7—9 form the Sequel Trilogy.

Television Specials 
Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
Caravan of Courage (1984)
The Battle of Endor (1985)

Television 
There have been 18 television series and three television specials. The longest series is Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In addition, there have also been some short animated miniseries released on YouTube such as Forces of Destiny and Galaxy of Adventures.

Video games 
The Star Wars franchise has spawned over one hundred computer, video, and board games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on the movie material, while others rely heavily on the non-canonical Expanded Universe (rebranded as Star Wars Legends and removed from the canon in 2014). Star Wars games have gone through three significant development eras, marked by a change in leadership among the developers: the early licensed games, those developed after the creation of LucasArts, and those created after the closure of the Lucasfilm division by Disney and the transfer of the license to Electronic Arts.

Early licensed games (1979–1993) 
The first officially licensed electronic Star Wars game was Kenner's 1979 table-top Star Wars Electronic Battle Command. In 1982, Parker Brothers published the first Star Wars video game for the Atari 2600, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, followed soon the year later by Star Wars: Jedi Arena, the first video game to depict lightsaber combat. They were followed in 1983 by Atari's rail shooter arcade game Star Wars, with vector graphics to replicate the Death Star trench run scene from the 1977 film. The next game, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1984), has more traditional raster graphics, while the following Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1985) has vector graphics.

Platform games were made for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including the Japan-exclusive Star Wars (1987), an international Star Wars (1991), and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1992). Super Star Wars (1992) was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, with two sequels over the next two years.

LucasArts and modern self-published games (1993–2014) 
Lucasfilm founded its own video game company in 1982, becoming best known for adventure games and World War II flight combat games, but as George Lucas took more interest in the increasing success of the video game market, he wanted to have more creative control over the games and founded his own development company, LucasArts. Improved graphics allowed games to tell complex narratives, which allowed for the retelling of the films, and eventually original narratives set in the same continuity, with voice-overs and CGI cutscenes. In 1993, LucasArts released Star Wars: X-Wing, the first self-published Star Wars video game and the first space flight simulator based on the franchise. It was one of the bestselling video games of 1993 and established its own series of games. The Rogue Squadron series was released between 1998 and 2003, also focusing on space battles set during the films.

Dark Forces (1995), a hybrid adventure game incorporating puzzles and strategy, was the first Star Wars first-person shooter. It featured gameplay and graphical features not then common in other games, made possible by LucasArts' custom-designed game engine, the Jedi. The game was well received, and it was followed by four sequels. The series introduced Kyle Katarn, who would appear in multiple games, novels, and comics. Katarn is a former stormtrooper who joins the Rebellion and becomes a Jedi, a plot arc similar to that of Finn in the sequel trilogy films. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars Galaxies, was in operation from 2003 until 2011. After Disney bought Lucasfilm, LucasArts ceased its role as a developer in 2013, although it still operates as a licensor.

EA Star Wars (2014–present) 
Following its acquisition of the franchise, Disney reassigned video game rights to Electronic Arts. Games made during this era are considered canonical, and feature more influence from the Star Wars filmmakers. Disney partnered with Lenovo to create the augmented reality video game Jedi Challenges, released in November 2017. In August 2018, it was announced that Zynga would publish free-to-play Star Wars mobile games. The Battlefront games received a canonical reboot with Star Wars: Battlefront in November 2015, which was followed by a sequel, Battlefront II, in November 2017. A single-player action-adventure game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, with an original story and cast of characters, was released in November 2019. A space combat game titled Star Wars: Squadrons, which builds upon the space battles from Battlefront, was released in October 2020.

Upcoming projects

Movies
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is a future Star Wars movie set to be released December 22, 2023. The movie is written and directed by Patty Jenkins making her the first woman to direct a Star Wars film. According to Starwars.com, the movie "will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy." 
Untitled Rian Johnson Trilogy a trilogy is currently being worked on by Rian Johnson who wrote and directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The trilogy was announced before the release of The Last Jedi but very little has been said about it. Rian Johnson said that he would start writing it after his film Knives Out and that it will take place in a new era with new characters. 
Two Untitled Star Wars films are set to release in December 2025 and December 2027.
A Untitled Kevin Fiege film is currently in currently being developed by Marvel Cinematic Universe producer Kevin Feige
A Untitled Star Wars Taika Watiti film is currently in development and was announced on May 4, 2020. Taika Waititi will be co-writing the movie with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Taika will also be the director of the film.

Television shows
Lando is a future Disney+ show set in the Star Wars universe. The show will focus on the character Lando Calrissian but it is unclear if Donald Glover or Billy Dee Williams will come back to play Lando. The show is written by Justin Simien.
Rangers of the New Republic is a future Disney+ show set in the Star Wars universe. The show was announced in December 2020 and will be worked on by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. It will take place at the same time as, Ahsoka, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
Ahsoka is a future Disney+ television show set in the Star Wars universe. It will take place during the time of The Mandalorian, Rangers of the New Republic, and The Book of Boba Fett. The shows will all join together in a story event at an unknown time. Rosario Dawson will be playing Ahsoka Tano again and the show will be written and directed by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.
The Acolyte is a future Star Wars Disney+ show written by Leslie Headland. The show will take place during the end of the High Republic Era of Star Wars and take a look at the dark forces in the galaxy as the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace get closer.
Visions is a Disney+ show that features ten short anthology anime films by different cartoonist set in the Star Wars universe. It was released in 2021. A second season will be released.

Related pages
Science and Star Wars

References

Other websites 

 Star Wars.com The official Star Wars website
 Official YouTube profile
 TheForce.net—One of the oldest Star Wars Fan Movie sites
 The Rebel Legion
 StarDestroyer.Net
 
 The Force of Star Wars  from Time.com
 Star Wars Trailer 
 Directory to Star Wars sites on the internet. 

 

 
American science fiction movies
Science fiction action movies
Cult movies