Entertainment Weekly Star Wars: The Ultimate Guide to the Complete Saga

By Entertainment Weekly

42 years ago, George Lucas drew inspiration from cinematic greats and the serials of his youth to fashion an unforgettable saga that launched an empire and changed moviegoing forever. Now, we see that journey come to a close in Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, and the experts at Entertainment Weekly are here to cover the Star Wars saga from start to finish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Entertainment Weekly
• Release date: Dec 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547851898

Book preview

Boyega.

The Originals

ILLUSTRATION BY MARTIN ANSIN

EPISODE IV

A New Hope

GEORGE LUCAS DREW INSPIRATION FROM CINEMATIC GREATS AND THE SERIALS OF HIS YOUTH TO FASHION AN UNFORGETTABLE SAGA THAT LAUNCHED AN EMPIRE. BY CHRIS NASHAWATY

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) sends a hologram distress message to an old friend.

A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY— 10 words that changed movies forever. In that elegant prologue lie infinite possibilities: the promise of romance, adventure and escapism far removed from the here and now. Like Once upon a time, this phrase feels like the windup to a fairy tale, which is exactly what George Lucas’s Star Wars was always meant to be: an exuberant science-fiction parable about good and evil, power and powerlessness, the white-light virtue of the Force and the insidious villainy of the Dark Side.

When Star Wars hit theaters on May 25, 1977, it didn’t just redefine our understanding of what a Hollywood blockbuster could be. It snowballed into a communal experience of sight, sound and spectacle uniting audiences young and old. Those early birds who soaked up the crashing chords of John Williams’s score and the dizzying visual jump to hyperspace knew they had witnessed a pop-culture phenomenon for the ages.

While Lucas’s eye-candy special effects were revolutionary, his story was anything but. It harked back to the giddy, optimistic Saturday-matinee serials he loved as a kid in the movie houses of Modesto, Calif.

The epic saga of a young orphaned dreamer named Luke Skywalker who’s initiated into a world beyond his imagination—a world where he becomes the galaxy’s last hope to lead the Rebel Alliance, rescue the princess and save the downtrodden from the tyranny of Darth Vader’s evil Empire—was meant to be a throwback to the swashbuckling exploits of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. But Lucas’s ambition went further than his childhood influences. He borrowed from John Ford, Akira Kurosawa and Joseph Campbell. He was making a kids’ movie that operated on a staggeringly high level of metaphorical depth.

The story of Luke Skywalker had been simmering in Lucas’s restless imagination for years (the character’s original name was Annikin Starkiller). But it only became a reality after his 1973 coming-of-age movie American Graffiti turned into a box office sensation. Suddenly Lucas had the confidence and the creative capital to launch his dream project. With its unconventional script— crammed with oddly named characters (Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi), exotic alien races (Sand People, Wookiees), bizarre settings (Mos Eisley cantina, the Death Star) and impossibly majestic sights (lightsaber duels, the two-sun horizon on Tatooine)— Star Wars seemed like a folly to almost everyone but Lucas. One of the most famous stories from the making of the film revolves around an early screening that Lucas held for his filmmaker pals. When it was over, there was utter silence. They all felt it was ridiculous, confusing, a disaster. Lucas was crestfallen. I didn’t expect the film to be successful at all, he later said. I don’t think anyone did. Only Steven Spielberg came to Lucas’s defense: George, it’s great. It’s going to make $100 million.

During its opening weekend, lines to see Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope) snaked around city blocks. The film’s odd-couple droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, were plastered on magazine covers, and the tie-in merchandise was in high demand. Because Lucas retained all rights, it made him a very wealthy man. I took over control of the merchandising not because I thought it was going to make me rich, but because I wanted to control it, said Lucas, who accepted a lower salary in exchange for those rights. I wanted to make a stand for social, safety and quality reasons. I didn’t want someone using the name Star Wars on a piece of junk. Meanwhile, the critics—still scrambling to catch up to the unexpected game-changing success of Jaws two years earlier— had wised up to the revolution afoot, with Roger Ebert calling it an out-of-the-body experience in his rave review. The modern-day Event Movie had been born. Suddenly it felt like cinema could take us anywhere.

Star Wars would go on to make $510 million in its initial run, the highest-grossing film ever released to that point. Meanwhile, the fans who’d literally leaped out of their seats to cheer when Luke blew up the Death Star were left starving for more. It would take Lucas three years to bring us back to his galaxy far, far away with The Empire Strikes Back. Until then, all we could do was return to the theater to watch Star Wars again . . . and again.

The original trio: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)

Checkmate, Wookiee—C-3PO and Chewbacca (the late Peter Mayhew) square off in a game of holochess

Han and Luke on the Death Star.

Leia in the Rebels’ command center

The circle is now complete. Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones) crosses lightsabers with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness)

The Rebel Alliance’s fleet of X-wing fighters ready for battle.

Han and Luke collect awards for their bravery

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Mark Hamill

WINNING THE ROLE OF LUKE SKYWALKER CHANGED HAMILL’S LIFE FOREVER. IN A 2015 CHAT WITH EW’S ANTHONY BREZNICAN, HE RECALLED THE EARLY DAYS OF GALACTIC FAME.

Hamill, R2-D2 (played by Kenny Baker in most scenes), Anthony Daniels in costume as droid C-3PO and Guinness pal around in the Tunisian sun on the set used for Mos Eisley.

On his first interaction with fans: "I remember going [to a convention] with [Star Wars producer] Gary Kurtz in the fall of 1976 when nobody knew what this was. So we did photographs, and I think [there was] an R2 unit, but I thought, ‘I better talk this up!’ because I had a feeling that it wouldn’t connect, certainly not the way it did."

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