George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, and Industrial Light & Magic. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His films are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster.
Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who was also the executive producer. The sequel to Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), it is the third installment in the original Star Wars trilogy, the third film to be produced, and the sixth chronological film in the "Skywalker Saga". The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew and Frank Oz.
Jar Jar Binks is a fictional character of the Gungan race from the Star Wars saga created by George Lucas. Jar Jar appears throughout the Star Wars prequel trilogy – as a major character in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, with a smaller role in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and with only a one-line cameo in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – as well as having a role in the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The first fully computer-generated supporting character in a live-action film, he has been voiced by Ahmed Best in most of his appearances, who also acted out the character with prosthetics prior to the CGI work. The last mention of Jar Jar is in the 2017 canonical novel Aftermath: Empire's End.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It starred Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Pernilla August, and Frank Oz. It is the fourth film in the Star Wars film series, the first film of the prequel trilogy and the first chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set 32 years before the original trilogy, during the era of the Galactic Republic, the plot follows Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi as they try to protect Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo in hopes of securing a peaceful end to an interplanetary trade dispute. Joined by Anakin Skywalker—a young slave with unusually strong natural powers of the Force—they simultaneously contend with the mysterious return of the Sith. The film was produced by Lucasfilm, with 20th Century Fox distributing.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Frank Oz. The sequel to The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack of the Clones (2002), it is the sixth film in the Star Wars film series, the final installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and third chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga".
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound, and computer animation for films. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California; most of the company's operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005. Disney acquired Lucasfilm on October 30, 2012, for $4.05 billion in the form of cash and stock, with $1.855 billion in stock.
Changes in Star Wars re-releases vary from minor differences in color timing, audio mixing, and take choices to major insertions of new visual effects, additions of characters and dialogue, scene expansions, and replacement of original cast members with newer ones. Though changes were also made to the prequel trilogy, the original trilogy saw the most alteration. Dissatisfied with the original theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, creator George Lucas altered the films in ways that were ostensibly not initially possible, primarily due to limitations of time, budget, and technology.
Star Wars: Revelations is a fan film released on April 17, 2005, created by fans of George Lucas's Star Warssaga. The film takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and explains why the Jedi Order was extinct in the original trilogy.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy, colloquially referred to as the prequels, is a series of epic space-opera films written and directed by George Lucas. It was produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The trilogy was released from 1999 to 2005 and is set before the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–83), making it the first act of the Skywalker saga, despite being the second released. Lucas had planned a prequel trilogy before the release of the original film, but halted major Star Wars films beyond the original trilogy by 1981. When computer-generated imagery (CGI) had advanced to the level he wanted for the visual effects he wanted for subsequent films, Lucas revived plans for the prequels by the early 1990s. The trilogy marked Lucas's return to directing after a 22-year hiatus following the original Star Wars film in 1977, as well as a 16-year hiatus between the classic and prequel trilogies.
Sith Apprentice is a Star Wars fan film that made its debut on the internet on March 29, 2005, directed by John E. Hudgens and co-written by Hudgens, Denny Humbard, and Men in Black creator Lowell Cunningham. Made for around $1000, it is a spoof of Star Wars and The Apprentice, with Emperor Palpatine filling the Donald Trump role in his search for a new apprentice. The final candidates in the film are Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Jar Jar Binks.
Pink Five is a Star Wars fan film that made its debut on the Internet in 2002 and was written and directed by Trey Stokes and stars Amy Earhart as Stacey, a fast-talking Valley Girl-type dropped into an X-wing cockpit during the Battle of Yavin, and presents familiar events and story points from Episode IV from a very different point of view.
Trey Stokes is an American filmmaker and puppeteer, best known for his Star Wars parody series Pink Five, and his puppeteering work on various movie, TV, and motion-ride projects.
John E. Hudgens is an independent director, producer, and editor noted for his short Star Wars fan films and for many Babylon 5 promotional videos.
George Lucas's science fiction multi-film Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on modern popular culture. Star Wars references are deeply embedded in popular culture; references to the main characters and themes of Star Wars are casually made in many English-speaking countries with the assumption that others will understand the reference. Darth Vader has become an iconic villain, while characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 have all become widely recognized characters around the world. Phrases such as "evil empire", "May the Force be with you", Jedi mind trick and "I am your father" have become part of the popular lexicon. The first Star Wars film in 1977 was a cultural unifier, enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people.
Trooper Clerks is an American animated parody film produced by Studio Creations that depicts Dante Hicks and Randall Graves, the titular convenience store clerks from writer/director Kevin Smith's Clerks films, as Stormtroopers in the Star Wars media franchise, in a satire of both properties.
"Robot Chicken: Star Wars" is a 2007 episode of the television comedy series Robot Chicken, airing as a one-off special during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block on June 17, 2007. It was released on DVD on July 22, 2008.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a 2008 American computer-animated epic space opera film directed by Dave Filoni, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, becoming the first Star Wars film to not be distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first fully animated film in the Star Wars franchise and takes place shortly after Episode II – Attack of the Clones, at the start of the titular Clone Wars. In the film, Count Dooku and Jabba the Hutt's uncle Ziro orchestrate a plan to turn Jabba against the Galactic Republic by framing the Jedi for the kidnapping of his son. While Anakin Skywalker and his newly assigned apprentice Ahsoka Tano attempt to deliver the child back to his father, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padmé Amidala lead separate investigations to uncover Dooku and Ziro's plot.
The "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" is a parody song based on the original Star Wars trilogy. The song was later popularized as a Flash-animated music video and was the first winner of the Audience Choice Award in the Lucasfilm-sponsored Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards.
Star Wars Detours is an unaired American CGI-animated comedy series. It is differentiated from the other Star Wars animated series in that it is a parody of the franchise. It offers a comedic take on what happened between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. The series was produced by Lucasfilm Animation in collaboration with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. Although 39 episodes of the show have been produced, their release has been on hold since 2013, following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm.
Rob Coleman is a Canadian animation director; he is currently the creative director at Industrial Light & Magic Sydney, Australia. Previously, he was the Head of Animation at the award-winning Australian visual effects and animation studio, Animal Logic from 2012-2021.
