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: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series) announced that "The Clone Wars" would be "winding down" to focus on the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy and a new series, "Star Wars Rebels". On February 13, 2014, Netflix announced that starting on March 7, 2014 they would begin the US distribution of the entire TV series, including some previously unreleased director's cuts, and the previously unaired new season dubbed "The Lost Missions". The latter also became available for purchase on digital video stores, such as iTunes, in . In November 2016, Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group revealed that the "Young Padawans" arc from Season 5 was intended