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As we celebrate May the 4th, a.ka. Star Wars Day, we wanted to take a look at the franchise’s galactic history.

The Idea

Before becoming known for creating the Star Wars universe, George Lucas directed two other films: THX 1138 and American Graffiti. He worked on both as a writer and director with Francis Ford Coppola, producing. Lucas and Coppola cofounded the film production company American Zoetrope just a few years after Lucas graduated from college.

But after those two films, he shifted gears, and his life quickly became about a galaxy far, far away, not long after that.

For Lucas, Star Wars began as a political statement. Specifically, he thought it up during the fallout of Richard Nixon’s presidency. “It was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships?” He told Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune in 2005. “Because the democracies aren’t overthrown; they’re given away.”

But, believe it or not, before the original film came out in 1977, a novel entitled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker was released. The novel predated the movie by about six months, though Lucas had been working on the film for several years before it opened in theaters.

The Beginning

When he began writing the series in 1973, Lucas originally titled it The Star Wars, but eventually dropped the “The.” Fans have noticed that Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (the first film) has similarities to Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. This is not coincidental, as Lucas is a huge fan of Kurosawa’s work and even executive-produced the international version of Kurosawa’s Kagemusha in 1980. In speaking with Criterion in 2001, Lucas said of Kurosawa that he is a “true genius.”

Although they are household names now, the majority of the original Star Wars cast were not well-known actors, despite their past work. Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, and Harrison Ford were thrust into stardom because of this film, although Jones was a respected stage actor at the time. The exceptions for the cast were Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Grand Moff Tarkin, respectively), who were both well-known actors.

When it was initially released in theaters on May 25, 1977, it was only at a few select theaters across the United States. Once it became clear that the film would be a box-office knockout, it received a much wider release and became the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982. When adjusted for inflation, the first Star Wars film remains the second-highest North American box office gross of all time, behind Gone with the Wind. It sold roughly 178,119,500 tickets for an adjusted gross box office total of $2.076 billion.

Despite only opening in select theaters, Star Wars received its premiere at the then Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The film became such a cultural phenomenon that on August 3, 1977, just a few months later, Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO put their footprints in The Forecourt of the Stars at the theater.

If you want a full outline of the history of the original Star Wars, check out our deep dive.

The Trilogy and the Prequels

Following the overwhelming success of the original film, two more films were released fairly quickly. The original Star Wars trilogy was released between 1977 and 1983. After Star Wars (or Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) was released, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980, and Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi followed in 1983, each film coming out almost exactly three years after the last.

Waiting until CGI could reasonably accomodate the plans Lucas had for more Star Wars films, the prequel trilogy began 16 years after the third movie in a similar three year by three year release timeline. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, with  Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones following in 2022 and finally Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005. In a 1980 interview with Bantha Tracks, the official Star Wars Fan Club Newsletter, Lucas said he cut down the number of films he wanted to nine:

“I cut that number down [from 12] to nine because the other three were tangential to the saga. Star Wars was the fourth story in the saga and was to have been called Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope. But I decided people wouldn’t understand the numbering system, so we dropped it. For Empire, though, we’re putting back the number and will call it Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back. After the third film in this trilogy, we’ll go back and make the first trilogy, which deals with the young Ben Kenobi and the young Darth Vader.” – George Lucas

The Sequels

After another decade-long hiatus, Star Wars returned to complete the sequel trilogy, which came out more quickly than the previous six films. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens was released in 2015, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi in 2017, and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Although this completed the nine films Lucas had cut the saga down to, his original plan for the final three films was largely put aside.

In Paul Duncan’s 2020 release The Star Wars Archives – Episode I-III, 1999-2005, Lucas told him the original plan for the trio of triologies: “After the Rebels won, there were no more stormtroopers in my version of the third trilogy. I had planned for the first trilogy to be about the father, the second trilogy to be about the son, and the third trilogy to be about the daughter and the grandchildren. The movies are about how Leia – I mean, who else is going to be the leader? – is trying to build the Republic. They still have the apparatus of the Republic but they have to get it under control from the gangsters. That was the main story.”

Besides that, Lucas wanted to explore the galaxy in a more microscropic manner and finally explain what midi-chlorians were and how they relate to The Force.

The acquisition of Lucasfilm and, subsequently, Star Wars by the Walt Disney Company in 2012 led to the sequels going in an entirely different direction. Though Leia, Luke, and Han still had some role in the stories.

The Shows and Standalone Films

Well beyond the original nine films, Star Wars has lived on in myriad other ways. There have been standalone films and several television series as well. Each tends to explore a different path or character, giving more life to the cast beyond just Lucas’ initial “Skywalker Saga.”

Films

• The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
• The Ewok Adventure (1984)
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

Animated Shows

• Droids (1985)
• Droids – Special (1986)
• Ewoks (1985-86)
• The Clone Wars (2008-2020)
• Rebels (2014-2018)
• Resistance (2018-2020)
• The Bad Batch (2021-2024)
• Visions (2021-2025)
• Tales (2022 – 2025)
• Young Jedi Adventures (2023 – 2025)
• Maul – Shadow Lord (2026 – TBA)
• Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi (2026)

Live Action Shows

• The Mandalorian (2019 – 2023)
• The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
• Andor (2022-2025
• Ahsoka (2023-TBA)
• The Acolyte (2024)
• Skeleton Crew (2024-2025)

Coming to theaters in just a few weeks on May 22, 2026, The Mandalorian and Grogu follows the duo from the hit Disney+ series. The film stars Pedro Pascal returning as Din Djarin a.k.a. The Mandalorian, alongside Grogu a.k.a. “Baby Yoda.” The cast also includes Sigourney Weaver as Ward, Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, and Jonny Coyne reprising his role from the Disney+ series as an Imperial Warlord. Zeb Orrelios, voiced by Steve Blum, from Star Wars Rebels, appears after a cameo in The Mandalorian season 3.

The Books

These books are still available online at the Disney Store:

• The Star Wars Archives 1977–1983 Book – 40th Ed. – $30
• Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures: Jedi Training Book – $17.99
• Jedi Brave in Every Way Book – Star Wars: The High Republic – $17.99
• Star Wars: The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless Book – $18.99
• Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm Book – $18.99
• Star Wars The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life Book – $18.99
• The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Book – $50
• Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook – $35
• Star Wars Life Day Treasury: Holiday Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away Book – $17.99
• A Jedi You Will Be Book – Star Wars – $18.99

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