Star Wars

Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially developed by George Lucas during the 1970s and significantly expanded since that time. more...

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The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars, but later had the subtitle A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels. Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, initially spawning two sequels. Twenty-two years after Star Wars was released, Lucas began the release of a second trilogy as a prequel to the original trilogy. The franchise has also spawned other media including novels, television series, video games, comic books, and other merchandise. These supplements to the film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe.

As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totalled approximately US$4.3 billion, making it one of the most successful franchises of all time.

Setting

The events of Star Wars take place in a fictional galaxy. Many of the main characters in the film are essentially identical to humans, though alien creatures are commonplace, as are robotic "droids" built generally to serve. Space travel is also common, with many of the planets in the galaxy members of a Galactic Republic, and later a Galactic Empire.

One of the prominent elements of the Star Wars series is the "Force" — an omnipresent form of energy which can be harnessed by those with unique abilities. It is described in the first film as, "an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." Those who can use the Force can perform feats of telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition, and mind control, as well as amplifying certain physical traits, such as reflexes. While the Force can be used for good, it has a dark side, which, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression, and malevolence. The six films feature the Jedi Knights, who use the Force for good, and the Sith Lords, who use the dark side for evil in an attempt to take over the galaxy.

Feature films

The Star Wars franchise began as a film series. The initial trilogy was comprised of three films: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, released on May 25, 1977, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21, 1980, and Star Wars Episode VI: 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. Once Star Wars became a success and sequels were realized, Lucas numbered the initial film as the fourth episode in his series, and gave it the subtitle A New Hope when the film was re-released in 1981. This was among the first of what would become many changes Lucas has retroactively made to his original Trilogy.

Read more at Wikipedia.org