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 sequel trilogy of "Star Wars" novels, Zahn was interviewed about the at-the-time just-announced sequel trilogy in 2012, he confirmed the sequel trilogy was never meant to be based on his Thrawn novels nor the expanded universe but said he had been briefed years before on Lucas's plans for the sequels. (Zahn had discussions with Lucas before the first Thrawn novel was published in 1991.) As announced by Lucasfilm, the sequel trilogy also meant the end of most of the existing "Star Wars" expanded universe, so as to give "maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and