The Death Star is a space station and superweapon featured in the Star Wars space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of annihilating entire planets into rubble, and serves to enforce the Empire's reign of terror. Appearing in the original 1977 film Star Wars, the Death Star serves as a central plot point and setting for the movie, and is destroyed in an assault by the Rebel Alliance in the climax of the film. A larger second Death Star is constructed in the events of the film Return of the Jedi featuring substantially improved capabilities compared to its predecessor. It is destroyed by the Rebel Alliance while under construction, however.
Grand Admiral Thrawn is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He appeared as the eponymous character in the Thrawn trilogies of novels by Timothy Zahn. An Imperial military leader and a member of the Chiss race, Thrawn leads remnants of the scattered Galactic Empire in the aftermath of its fall.
A fictional universe is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative work or work of art, most commonly associated with works of fantasy and science fiction. Fictional universes appear in novels, comics, films, television shows, video games, art, and other creative works.
Coruscant is an ecumenopolis planet in the fictional Star Wars universe. It was first depicted in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, and made its first on-screen appearance in a scene added to Return of the Jedi for its 1997 re-release. It has gone on to become an important location in the setting and appears frequently in Star Wars media.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a 1996 multimedia project created by Lucasfilm. The idea was to create a story set between the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release without actually making a film. The venture was intended to reinvigorate interest in the franchise ahead of the theatrical Special Editions of the Star Wars trilogy released the following year.
Yavin is a fictional planet in the Star Wars galaxy. It first appeared in the 1977 film Star Wars and is depicted as a large red gas giant with an extensive satellite system of moons. The hidden military base of the Rebel Alliance is located on its fourth moon, Yavin 4.
The canon of a work of fiction is "the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative; [especially] those created by the original author or developer of the world". Canon is contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction and other derivative works.
The Ewok Adventure is a 1984 American fantasy adventure film based in the Star Wars universe. It takes place on the moon of Endor, and features the Ewoks, who help two young human siblings as they try to locate their parents.
Ewoks, also known as Star Wars: Ewoks, is an animated television series featuring the Ewok characters introduced in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) and further discovered in Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and its sequel Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985). The series was produced by Canada-based Nelvana on behalf of Lucasfilm and broadcast on ABC, originally with its sister series Droids, and then by itself, as The All-New Ewoks.
The Thrawn trilogy, also known as the Heir to the Empire trilogy, is a trilogy of novels set in the Star Wars universe, written by Timothy Zahn between 1991 and 1993. The first book marked the end of the notable drought of new Star Wars material during a four-year period from the tenth anniversary of the original 1977 film's release to the release of Heir to the Empire in 1991.
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's sci-fi action saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Return of the Jedi (1983) as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping maw is lined with several rows of sharp teeth, inhabiting the Great Pit of Carkoon, a hollow in the sand of the desert planet Tatooine. After bounty hunter Boba Fett escapes from its maw in "Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land" of The Book of Boba Fett (2022) and eventually returns to retrieve his armour, the sarlacc is killed by his partner Fennec Shand in "Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm".
Stephen J. Sansweet is the chairman and former president of Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the world's largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia.
A Guide to the Star Wars Universe is a reference book based on the Star Wars franchise published by Del Rey. The first edition was published in 1984 and written by Raymond L. Velasco. It is 215 pages long and contains roughly 951 entries. A second edition was published in 1994, written by Bill Slavicsek. It is 495 pages long, and the publisher's summary claims that it contains 50% new material. Slavicsek later also produced a third edition in 2000, which is 596 pages long and incorporates elements from Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999).
A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, characters, or world of the overall project. It is common in genres like science fiction. It differs from collaborative writing in which multiple artists are working together on the same work and from crossovers where the works and characters are independent except for a single meeting.
Star Wars has been expanded to media other than the original films. This spin-off material is licensed and moderated by Lucasfilm, though during his involvement with the franchise Star Wars creator George Lucas reserved the right to both draw from and contradict it in his own works. Such derivative works have been produced concurrently with, between, and after the original, prequel, and sequel trilogies, as well as the spin-off films and television series. Commonly explored Star Wars media include books, comic books, and video games, though other forms such as audio dramas have also been produced.
Jabba Desilijic Tiure, more commonly known as Jabba the Hutt, is a fictional character and major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise. Created by George Lucas, Jabba is voiced by Larry Ward with several puppeteers inside a one-ton puppet portraying him in Return of the Jedi. He was originally supposed to first appear in Star Wars (1977) as a stop motion character with Declan Mulholland as his stand-in. Jabba was later added into the film as a CGI character when it was re-released in Special Edition in 1997. He also appears in the prequel movie The Phantom Menace. The character is a large slug-like creature based on annelid worms and originally designed as an apelike figure.
Mace Windu is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the prequel trilogy. Jackson later reprised the role with voice only in the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the 2019 sequel film The Rise of Skywalker, whilst Terrence C. Carson voiced the character in other projects, such as The Clone Wars animated television series. The character also appears in various canon and non-canon Star Wars media like books, comics, and video games.
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and social advancements in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies. The term has no relation to opera music, but is instead a play on the terms "soap opera", a melodramatic television series, and "horse opera", which was coined during the 1930s to indicate a clichéd and formulaic Western film. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.
Pablo Hidalgo is a Chilean-born creative executive based in California, currently working for Lucasfilm on the Star Wars franchise. He is frequently named as one of the people tasked with maintaining the canon of the franchise after its partial reboot in 2014 and often consults on Star Wars projects in development regarding their integration in the larger Star Wars canon. He is the author of several official references and guidebooks about the Star Wars, G.I. Joe and Transformers franchises.
