Star Wars: Original Trilogy

Star Wars is a space opera film series with a huge worldwide fandom and a massive impact on pop culture. The first film was released in 1977 and spawned an entire new fandom in a matter of months of its release. 
== Canon ==
The Original Trilogy is, continuity-wise, the middle of the saga, telling the story of a farm boy who rescues a captive princess and winds up a crucial part of the Rebellion against the Empire. The Trilogy movies are: 
* Star Wars IV: A New Hope 
* Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back 
* Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi 
However there are also additional properties such as The Star Wars Holiday Special, Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor; while the Star Wars Radio Show was a radio play version of the three movies. The Holiday Special, along with the two Ewok-centric movies and the novels and comics which also were released during this time, were considered part of the Expanded Universe until April 2014, when George Lucas announced all EU material was non-canon, except for The Clone Wars movie and two cartoon series. Select parts of the old EU material is now known as "Star Wars Legends". 
=== Characters ===
*Luke Skywalker
*Ben Kenobi
*Han Solo
*Chewbacca
*Leia Organa
*Yoda
*Lando Calrissian
*Darth Vader
*C3PO
*R2-D2
*Wedge Antilles
*Boba Fett
*Mon Mothma
==Fandom History ==
Editor of Spectrum, M.J. Fisher predicted in Issue 34 (September 1977), the fan reaction to the new movie: Star Wars fandom grew rapidly, with fan clubs, zines, and fan-run conventions, surpassing even these predictions. In 1978, the editors of the Star Trek fanzine Sol Plus advertised for new submissions, saying: "...and please, Star Trek only, no Star Wars!" This showed that Star Trek fans were increasingly writing Star Wars material, and sending it to Star Trek editors for publication. from Boldly Writing 
By 1979, however, Star Wars was being recognized at fan run conventions and the first FanQ awards were given to Star Wars fans: Maggie Nowakowska for her Star Wars stories the Thousandworlds Collected series, and Martynn, who illustrated Star Wars stories.data pulled from the MediaWest [[FanQ awards website] In 1980, the annual convention for fanzine producers and readers moved from Michigan to New York for one year. "The name, Mos' Eastly Con, showed the growing influence of Star Wars. Organizers evenly split the panels between Star Trek and Star Wars; the remaining panels covered general topics (such as "the art of editing")." from Boldly Writing 
Things were a little slower outside of the States, but they eventually caught up:
===Fanclubs===
One of the earliest fan clubs was The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces formed in 1977. It was run by Paula Truelove, who was later co-editor of the Harrison Ford fanzine Flip of a Coin. Another club was Forces of the EmpireForces of the Empire Chronology, which was established in 1980 and is still in existence today. Clubs were not restricted to the United States: both the Moons of Yavin Fan club in England Moons of Yavin fan club website and Maikel Das's Northern German Star Wars group Northern German Star Wars group website located in Hamburg Hamburg, Germany fan club website sprang into existence and operated for many years, producing both fanzines and art. 
===Zines ===
Star Wars fannish material began to appear in zines almost immediately. In September 1977, a fan wrote: "I know of at least 4 zineds in ST fandom who are already planning zines..." from Spectrum #34 
There was an official Star Wars newsletter that did publish some fan art and meta articles by fans. Bantha TracksBantha Tracks History on Wookiepedia was published from 1978 to 1987 by LucasFilm as part of the Fan Relations department. 
The first zines:
*Hyper Space (fiction and non-fiction) ties with The Force (non-fiction) as the first Star Wars zines published (both June 1977)
*Warped Space #26/27 (July 1977) cover was a Star Wars one, artist was Gordon Carleton
*Warped Space #28 published the first Star Wars story in a multimedia zine in July 1977
*Moonbeam #3 (fiction) The editor of "Moonbeam" says: "I believed for almost 30 years that it was in fact the first primarily Star Wars fiction fanzine, but I recently learned that Skywalker, the exceptional Star Wars zine edited by Bev Clark, was in fact first by a couple of weeks. Ah well. I was still one of the first, and probably the first on the East Coast.." Actually, according to the dates on the zines themselves, "Moonbeam" was first; perhaps there was an understood wiggle-room with the distribution? and the letterzine, Alderaan, were both published in February 1978
*Against the Sith (fiction and non-fiction) and Skywalker (fiction) were published in April 1978, though Against the Sith beat Skywalker by a few weeks. From Bev Clark in Southern Enclave #10: "AGAINST THE SITH came out a few weeks before SKYWALKER, no more than six. Neither was the first SW fanzine, exactly. The very first fanzine was a small, poorly produced effort out of Long Beach, called THE FORCE; it was more like a traditional 5F fanzine in that it didn't have much fiction. It was also what is bluntly called in SF fandom, a crudzine. The first fanzine to print all SW fiction, though admittedly as a single issue of a fanzine that was not devoted to SW to the exclusion of all else, was MOONBEAM 3, which came out in the late fall of 1977 or the early spring of 1978 before either AGAINST THE SITH or SKYWALKER, at any rate. SKYWALKER was certainly in preparation by then, however, it began in September, 1977." 
Before the internet, fans kept in contact via regular mail and letterzines, which were small, cheaply produced zines that printed letters from the subscribers, often including new zine announcements, meta discussions and essays, and flame wars as well as friendly chat and news about the movies and the fan community. Some fan club groups also produced their own letterzines, some including members' fan fiction and fan art. Three key letterzines were Alderaan (1978-1981), Jundland Wastes (1981-1983), and Southern Enclave (1984-2000).
Hundreds of zines were published and sold by fans through the mail and at conventions such as MediaWest*Con; some are still in production or available through used zines sales at conventions or on eBay. 
For more on zines, see Star Wars Fanzines.
Star Wars fanzines and other fan works continued to be published through the 1980s and 1990s, with interest in the fandom waxing and waning over the years, often timed to the release of a new movie.
=== Expanded Universe===
In 1991, Heir to the Empire, the first Star Wars tie-in novel was published. It was a major entry in what would become known as the Expanded Universe or EU. The Expanded Universe was a major drive of fan activity prior to the release of the first prequel film, The Phantom Menace, in 1999. Many characters who appeared only in the EU, such as Mara Jade, became extremely popular among fans. In April 2014, George Lucas announced all EU material was non-canon, except for The Clone Wars movie and two cartoon series. Select parts of the old EU material is now known as "Star Wars Legends".
See Star Wars Expanded Universe and Star Wars Legends for more details.
===Some Difficult Times===
After Return of the Jedi was released, Star Wars fandom entered a trying period. There were no new movies on the horizon, and the last one had been somewhat of a letdown, anyway. The wounds opened by debate in Jundland Wastes, much of it pointed and painful, caused many fans to lick their wounds and back off. 
===Move To The Internet ===
In the mid to late 90s, Star Wars fanfiction began to appear online in multi-fandom mailing lists, archives, and personal author sites, and finally in new Star Wars-centric archives. At first, much of the new fanfiction available online was drawn from the new Star Wars novel series, such as The Jedi Academy Trilogy (first published in 1994) and the X-Wing Series (beginning in 1996). The Corellian Embassy started up in 1998, with the goal of getting movie fanfiction from the older fanzines of the 70s and 80s online where new fans could find it. It was followed by sites like the Organa-Zation, SWA-L, The Sith Academy, The Force.Net's fanfiction section, Elusive Lover, and many others. There were also online fan clubs, such as the Star Wars Club. Many of the early sites were on free services like GeoCities or AngelFire, and have since been lost. A few of the Geocities websites have been archived and are listed here. A comprehensive list of websites featuring Star Wars fan fiction and fan art, mailing lists and resource websites can be found on Stay On Target; an earlier incarnation was The Complete Star Wars WWW Listing from 1995.
===Shipping===
:See also List of Star Wars Relationship Names
== Fanworks ==
===Fanclubs ===
*The Modesto Area Star Wars Fan Club
===Zines===
(see also List of Original Trilogy Star Wars Zines)
*Hare Wars: The Empire Bites Back (1980) (the front cover's fanart references Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers characters)
*Organia by Bev Lorenstein and Judith Gran (1982) (het and slash zine)
*Imperial Entanglements (1982) (het and slash zine)
*The Rest of the Garbage (and all the follow-on "Garbage" zines) (1995-2001) (het and slash zine)
*Elusive Lover & Kingdom of Shadows fanzine series by Cara J. Loup (1996-2003) (Han/Luke slash)
*You Could Use a Good Kiss (1999-2000) (het zine, later online)
*Don't Get Excited (2000 or later) (het zine, online)
===Mailing Lists/Newgroups/Archives===
====Usenet====
*rec.arts.sf.starwars
*Star Wars Echo (Fido.net BBS)
====Mailing Lists====
*Luke_and_Han archive link (2000-2010) - slash mailing list on Yahoo Groups.
	
*Dark Luke archive link "This group is for discussion and fanfic of a galaxy far, far away in which Luke Skywalker did turn to the Dark Side of the Force. Theories, stories, etc. all welcome. Slash stories encouraged. Redemption fic welcome. We even like Mara, as long as she's dark. You need to be above the Age of Consent in your location. For more information:	http://www.geocities.com/lordvengar" (2001-2003)
====Archives====
*Bast Castle (gen and adult)
*Corellian Embassy - gen fan fiction that appeared in fanzines (1998-2010) (offline)
*Chibi Jedi's Princess Leia Shrine
*The Darth Side (Star Wars Erotica)
*Dee's Star Wars Page (2005) (Luke/Mara)
*Elusive Lover (archive) - slash fan fiction that appeared in fanzines (?-2010) (offline)
*FanFix: The Star Wars Fan Fiction Library (1997-2003) WayBack Links, multiple years
*The Hidden Past (1999-2000)
*Moments: Han and Leia Star Wars fan fiction
*Organa-zation (Star Wars fiction archive) (2001-2006) (Leia Organa)
*This Is Some Rescue (2000-2007) (Han/Leia)
*Tranquility Amongst the Stars (2001-2007) - fanfiction archive for the first six Star Wars movies.
*The Wedge Antilles Admiration Society (2002-2005) (Wedge Antilles)
*You Could Use a Good Kiss Archive - an archive focusing on Han Solo and Princess Leia fan fiction that appeared in the You Could Use a Good Kiss fanzines.
=== Fanfiction===
(see also :Category:Star Wars Fanfiction)
*Last Sanctuary by Maggie Nowakowska (1978)
*Phantom of Shadows by Dyane Kirkland (1978)
*Evidence by Karen Winter (1982) (Han/Luke)
*The Journal of the Whills (1997) by Brendon Wahlberg
===Fanart===
(see also :Category:Star Wars Art)
File:Yandro241.jpg|Yandro Issue #241 front cover art by Juanita Coulson (1977)
File:Probe12backcover.jpg|Probe #12, back cover by Cecilia Cosentini (1978)
File:Maikeldas Star wars Luke gal27.gif|Fanart by Maikel Das (1987)
===Fanfilms and Vids===
*The Dark Redemption (1999)
*Han/Luke Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (deleted scene) (2015)
===Cosplay===
* 501st Legion
===Other Fanworks===
Fancomics:
*Blue Milk Special - parody of the original trilogy, the Holiday Special, and Star Wars Legends by Leanne Hannah and Rod William Hannah.
====Filks/Filk Songbooks====
*The What-To-Do While Waiting in Line for the Star Wars Re-Release Song Book by Kate Yule
===Meta/Further Reading===
*You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned: How The Empire Strikes Back Ruined Everything by Emily Asher-Perrin at Tor.com (May 25, 2011)
*Lucas Shot First: The Surprisingly Powerful Sense of Betrayal George Lucas Creates by Emily Asher-Perrin at Tor.com (March 16, 2012)
* (July 21, 2015)
* (2015)
*The Lucasfilm Porno Flap: The story of George Lucas' ban on smutty Star Wars fanfiction (September, 2021)
*:Category:Star Wars Meta
===Interviews===
*Alderaan Interview with Craig Miller
*Echo Station Interview with Warren Duxbury
*Fangirl Chat 17: An Oral History of Fandom with Maggie Nowakowska
*FANgirl Interview with Shea Standefer
*FANgirl Interview with Victoria Schmidt aka “Scruffy Rebel”
*Interview with Bob Miller
*Interview with Carolyn Golledge
*Linda’s Star Wars Celebration Anaheim Fan Interviews: Annalise Ophelian
*Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Linda Deneroff
*Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Maggie Nowakowska
*Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Susan R. Matthews
*Mind Probe: Interview with Skip Shayotovich
*Organa-zation Profile: Michelle Slaughter
*OTW Guest Post: Annalise Ophelian
*Transformative Works and Cultures Interview with Robert DeSimone
*Unifying Star Wars Fandom -- A Panel Discussion (1992)
*The Unifying Star Wars Fandom Panel (1993)
==External Links==
*German fansite devoted to the character of R2D2
*German fansite devoted to everything Wookiee
==References==
==Notes==
**