Galactic Empire (Star Wars) Galactic Empire (Star Wars) The Galactic Empire is a fictional autocracy featured in the "Star Wars" franchise. It was first introduced in the 1977 film "Star Wars" and also appears in its two sequels: "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) and is the main antagonist faction of the original trilogy. By the time of the sequel trilogy, which starts three decades following the events of the original trilogy, the government has since collapsed and has been succeeded by the First Order. The Empire's origins are depicted in the prequel "" (2005), where it replaces the
Star Wars sequel trilogy ones that I originally wrote [on screen in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"]". Some details about Lucas's story treatments from the early-2010s were revealed in the book "The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi". In January 2013 at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas held the first story briefing about the as-yet untitled "Episode VII". Related concept art includes: Lucas seemingly had planned for the conclusion of Luke's story to happen in "Episode VII" instead of "Episode VIII", with Luke dying at the end of the film; this element was instead incorporated into Johnson's film. Conversely, some months later, Mark Hamill