Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, created by George Lucas and centered around a film series that began with the eponymous 1977 movie. The saga quickly became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The first film was followed by two successful sequels, "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983); these three films constitute the original "Star Wars" trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, albeit to mixed reactions from critics and fans. Finally, a sequel trilogy to conclude the nine-episode saga began in 2015 with "". The first eight
Star Wars expanded to other media considered canonical within the franchise would be the primary episodic films, and and . The announcement called these works "the immovable objects of "Star Wars" history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align." It was also made clear that a planned "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on "Legends" material but could possibly draw from it. There was some fan backlash against this decision, with one group successfully campaigning to buy a billboard pleading for Lucasfilm to continue the original "Expanded Universe" separately from the new