Star Wars

Star Wars (English for Star Wars) is a film franchise whose history began with the 1977 motion picture Star Wars (original title: Star Wars). The creator of Star Wars is screenwriter, producer and director George Lucas. In 2012, Lucas sold his company Lucasfilm, along with the rights to Star Wars, to the Walt Disney Company.

At its core, Star Wars consists of three film trilogies: The Original Trilogy, which includes The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi Knights (1983), in addition to Star Wars (now titled A New Hope); the prequel trilogy, set in the period before the original trilogy, with the films The Dark Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005); and the sequel trilogy, with the films The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and Skywalker's Rise (2019).

Star Wars is classified among other things in the genre of space opera and as a heroic epic. The films are set in the fictional universe of a distant past and deal with the ongoing struggle between good and evil - two sides represented by the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force. The first two trilogies essentially tell of the fall of the Galactic Republic, the rise of the Galactic Empire, and the successful revolution against the Empire by the former leaders of the Republic. The models and sources of inspiration for Star Wars were works from pop culture, including those by director Akira Kurosawa, and from the myth theory of Joseph Campbell.

In terms of box-office takings, which to date have totalled over USD 10.3 billion, the Star Wars saga is the second most successful film series in film history after the Marvel Cinematic Universe (both from the Walt Disney Company). Further, the Star Wars franchise includes numerous series, more than 250 novels, as well as comic books, toys, and countless other merchandising products. Up to and including 2018, the sale of Star Wars-branded products has generated the equivalent of around $70 billion in revenue. This makes Star Wars the most successful film merchandising franchise in the world, and it is in the Guinness World Records book. The numerous awards won by the films also include ten Oscars.

In addition to the films in the three trilogies of the Skywalker saga, two spin-offs hit theaters in December 2016 with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and May 2018 with Solo: A Star Wars Story. A whole conglomerate of new films and series were announced at Disney Investor Day 2020. On the in-house streaming service Disney+, new series are now being released continuously since 2019, including The Mandalorian (since 2019), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (season 7, 2020), Star Wars: The Bad Batch (since 2021) and Obi-Wan Kenobi from 2022. Disney confirmed the release of three new films in 2023, 2025 and 2027.

Main Movies Overview

Three film trilogies form the core of Star Wars. First released between 1977 and 1983, the three films together form the original trilogy. In later years, these films were given new titles in which they are numbered with the Roman numerals IV, V, and VI. The three films first released between 1999 and 2005 have episode numbers I, II, and III in their titles and form the Prequel Trilogy, which tells the prequel story to the Original Trilogy. The film The Force Awakens, released in 2015, is the prelude to the Sequel Trilogy, whose plot follows that of the Original Trilogy and concludes the "Skywalker" saga. On May 7, 2019, Disney set three dates for new, as-yet-untitled films in 2022, 2024, and 2026.

Trilogy	Year	German title	Original title	Chronology	Directed by
Original Trilogy	1977	Star Wars (later: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)	Star Wars (later: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope)	4	George Lucas
	1980	The Empire Strikes Back (later: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)	The Empire Strikes Back (later: Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)	5	Irvin Kershner
	1983	Return of the Jedi Knights (later: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi Knights)	Return of the Jedi (later: Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi)	6	Richard Marquand
Prequel Trilogy	1999	Star Wars: Episode I - The Dark Menace	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	1	George Lucas
	2002	Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones	Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones	2
	2005	Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith	Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith	3
Sequel Trilogy	2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	7	J.J. Abrams
	2017	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	8	Rian Johnson
	2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	9	J.J. Abrams

Plot of the main movies

A defining element of the films is the Force. It is described in the original Star Wars films by Obi-Wan Kenobi as an all-pervasive energy field that holds the universe together. Those who possess the gift of using the Force effectively have powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, or mentally influencing other living beings. Essentially, the film series is about the constant struggle between good and evil. This struggle is reflected in the conflict between democratically oriented and tyrannical characters.

Episodes I-III

The Skywalker Saga, as the 9 main films in the franchise are also known, is set in a fictional galaxy containing a multitude of inhabited star systems that are in contact with each other. The majority of these systems have banded together to form the Republic, a democratic federation ruled by the Galactic Senate on the planet Coruscant. The Republic initially has no military, but is aided by the Jedi Knights, a mystical warrior order whose goal is to keep peace in the galaxy.

This order seeks to overthrow Senate member Sheev Palpatine and replace him with a dictatorship under his rule. To destabilize the Republic, he covertly organizes resistance against it as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. First, he makes a pact with the Trade Federation, a trade organization with significant military resources. He orders them to first blockade and then occupy the planet Naboo. This results in a political crisis in the Republic, with Palpatine getting himself elected as the head of the Republic, the Chancellor.

Meanwhile, Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi have traveled to Naboo to evacuate the royal house. During their escape, they meet young Anakin Skywalker, in whom Qui-Gon recognizes the potential of a powerful Jedi. He assumes Anakin will fulfill an ancient Jedi prophecy, which states that someday a powerful Jedi will come and destroy the Sith, the Jedi's adversaries. As a result, Skywalker is trained as a Jedi. Meanwhile, a Republic strike force succeeds in ending the occupation of the Trade Federation and liberating Naboo.

Sidious encourages various organizations and groups to turn away from the Republic and form a Separatist Alliance. He recruits the former Jedi Count Dooku, who then recruits new followers for the Separatists. Their growing political and military strength culminates in the Battle of Geonosis, the beginning of a war between the Republic and the Separatists. In the course of this war, Palpatine achieves a dictatorial position in the Republic through special powers.

Anakin Skywalker, meanwhile, was trained as a Jedi and rose to become a respected general. At the same time, he began a secret love affair with Senator Padmé Amidala. Such relationships, however, contradict the principles of the Jedi, who reject close personal ties. While the Republic gradually gains the upper hand in the war and Count Dooku is killed by Anakin Skywalker in a battle, Palpatine tries to win Skywalker over. To do so, he primarily uses the latter's concern that Padmé would die giving birth to their child together. He offers Skywalker the prospect of saving his wife's life if he accepts some of the Sith's teachings.

When Anakin recognizes the Sith Darth Sidious in Palpatine, he informs the Jedi Council. The Jedi Council then tries to place Palpatine under arrest. Palpatine kills three of the four Jedi and is then overpowered by the last survivor, Master Windu. Anakin then intervenes in the duel and disarms Windu, who is consequently killed by Palpatine. Palpatine explains to Skywalker how he can save his wife. In return, Anakin agrees to serve as Darth Vader's apprentice under his name. He then instructs him to kill the Jedi on Coruscant. To do so, he marches clone troopers - the Republic army - into the Jedi Temple and captures it. At the same time, clone troopers galaxy-wide attack the Jedi accompanying them. Only a few Jedi survive these attacks, including Obi-Wan and Yoda. Palpatine then declares the Jedi enemies of the state and reshapes the Republic into a military dictatorship.

Meanwhile, Vader eliminates the remaining Separatist leaders. Thinking that Anakin has become a Sith, Obi-Wan pursues him and attempts to take him out. He succeeds in severely wounding Anakin. Assuming that he will succumb to his injuries soon after, Obi-Wan leaves him behind.

Senator Bail Organa, Yoda and Obi-Wan meet shortly after in a hideout where Padmé gives birth to twins and names them Luke and Leia. Obi-Wan and Yoda decide to separate the children after their mother's death following the birth, in order to hide them from the Emperor. Kenobi accompanies Luke to Tatooine, where he grows up with his Uncle Owen and his wife Beru Lars, while Bail Organa takes Leia to Alderaan to raise her.

Meanwhile, the severely injured Darth Vader is rescued by Emperor Palpatine. The emergency surgery that follows turns him into a machine-like being, as Vader is on life support. Palpatine, meanwhile, has begun a massive upgrade, spearheaded by the Death Star space station.

Episodes IV-VI

Episode IV takes place 19 years after these events. Resistance to Palpatine's dictatorship has formed in the form of the Rebel Alliance, whose goal is to restore the Republic.

The Rebels have stolen the construction plans of the Death Star in order to destroy it. As Princess Leia attempts to deliver these plans to Alderaan to her father, one of the founding members of the Rebellion, her ship is intercepted by an Imperial cruiser over the planet Tatooine. Imperial troops board the ship and arrest Leia. Shortly before that, however, she manages to deliver the plans to droids R2-D2 and C-3PO and send them to Tatooine in an escape pod.

Luke Skywalker, who knows nothing of his origins, discovers these droids and accidentally comes across a message left by Leia containing a call for help to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke then searches for and finds Kenobi, who has taken up residence as a hermit on Tatooine. The Jedi Knight Kenobi tells Luke in part about his origins, concealing the fact that Vader is his father. He does, however, hand him his lightsaber. Luke is reluctant at first, until an Imperial search party looking for the two droids attacks the farm of Luke's step-uncle and his wife, killing them. Obi-Wan and Luke then decide to take the plans to Leia's father on Alderaan. To do this, Obi-Wan hires smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca.

When the group arrives in the Alderaan system, however, they find only planetary debris and the Death Star. The planet was previously destroyed by the battle station in order to get Leia to reveal the location of the Rebel base. As a result, Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, is pulled aboard the Death Star by tractor beam. There, Luke, Han, Chewbacca and the two droids manage to free the princess. Kenobi meanwhile deactivates the tractor beam, draws Vader's attention to himself, and finally lets him kill himself to allow the others to escape. This succeeds, but Vader had a homing beacon attached to the Falcon beforehand, which the Imperials use to determine the location of the Rebel base on Yavin IV. There, a battle ensues between a Rebel starfighter fleet and the Death Star, resulting in the destruction of the battle station by Luke Skywalker.

The Rebels then retreat from Yavin and set up a new camp on the ice planet Hoth. When the Empire discovers and attacks this base, the defeated Rebels are forced to flee the planet. While Luke travels to Dagobah to be trained as a Jedi by Jedi Master Yoda, Leia and Han flee to the cloud city of Bespin, whose administrator Lando Calrissian is an old friend of Han's. There they are arrested by Vader, who arrived on Bespin earlier, and used as hostages to lure Luke here. This is who Vader, who has since realized that Luke is his son, wants to draw to his side. Through the Force, Luke learns of his friends' plight and, against Yoda's advice, rushes to Bespin, where he faces Vader in battle. Vader clearly outmatches Skywalker and wounds him. He then tells him that he is his father, and challenges him to join him in seizing power in the universe. Luke then throws himself down a shaft in horror. At the same time, Calrissian had helped Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO escape the city; Leia hears Luke's call for help, and the three turn around and take him aboard.

Han is meanwhile handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who takes him to the palace of the crime lord Jabba on Tatooine, because Han owed Jabba money. Some time later Luke, together with Lando and Leia, manages to free Han from Jabba's palace. Afterwards, Luke flies to Dagobah again, where Yoda tells him that he needs no further training and can become a Jedi by defeating Vader. Yoda then falls asleep and Luke learns through the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi that Leia is his twin sister.

Meanwhile, the Empire is building a second Death Star over the forest moon of Endor. The Rebels plan to attack the station and kill the Emperor, who is overseeing its construction. Luke wants to turn his father away from the Emperor as part of this mission. He confronts Vader and has him take him to the Emperor. There, Palpatine tries to draw him to the Dark Side. Skywalker refuses and tries to kill the Emperor, but in the process Vader gets in his way. During the fight, Luke tries in vain to convince him to become a Jedi again. Vader instead learns that Leia is Luke's sister. As a result, Luke strikes him down. The Emperor now asks Luke to execute Vader and take his place. When Luke refuses, the Emperor sets about killing him. The injured Vader intervenes to save his son and plunges the Emperor into the Death Star's reactor shaft. Still on the station, Vader succumbs to his injuries and the damage taken to his life support suit. Luke then flees the station and buries his father on Endor.

Meanwhile, on Endor, Han, Leia and Chewbacca manage to disable the Death Star's shield generator with the help of the local Ewoks. This allows a Rebel fighter squadron to destroy the battle station. The victory on Endor ultimately leads to the end of the Galactic Civil War and the collapse of the Empire.

Episode VII-IX

After the Battle of Endor, the Empire is severely weakened. The civil war between the Empire and the Rebellion, who proclaimed the New Republic after Endor, continues for another year. At the Battle of Jakku, the Empire is further decimated and the remnants retreat to the Unknown Regions following a plan by Palpatine. An era of peace begins, in which a military splinter group called the First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke, forms from the Imperial remnants, warrior castes, and Senators loyal to the Empire in the New Republic. This is a created and controlled tool of Emperor Palpatine who, unnoticed by the public, has managed to keep himself alive artificially on the Sith world Exegol in a clone body, connected to machines, and to pursue his goal of absolute domination. Palpatine has been secretly working on his final plan in the form of a massive Star Destroyer fleet, while plunging the galaxy into armed conflict once again with the First Order he initiated. Since the Republic doesn't take the First Order threat seriously, Leia Organa forms the Resistance to protect them. Luke Skywalker attempts to establish a new Jedi Order. However, this is thwarted by Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia, who - manipulated by purposefully fueled visions of the Emperor - joins Snoke and breaks up the Jedi Order. Skywalker retreats into exile after Ben's switch to the Dark Side.

Kylo Ren, as Ben Solo has come to call himself, is looking for his former master to kill. The Resistance is also looking for Skywalker to help them fight the First Order. A clue to Skywalker's whereabouts is provided by a map fragment that comes into the possession of Poe Dameron, a Resistance pilot. Ren tracks Dameron down shortly thereafter. However, the latter was able to hide the fragment from Ren in the droid BB-8. This droid manages to escape from the troops of the First Order. A short time later he comes into the possession of the scrap collector Rey. Together with the deserted stormtrooper Finn, who fled together with Dameron from Ren's ship, as well as Han and Chewbacca, Rey tries to bring the map to the base of the Resistance. In the process, they are repeatedly attacked by the First Order. While Han, Chewbacca and Finn escape with the fragment, Rey is captured by Kylo Ren.

Meanwhile, the First Order uses the Republic's support of the Resistance as an opportunity to declare war on the Republic and destroy its seat of government with a new superweapon, Starkiller Base. The Resistance plans to destroy this weapon, whose next target is the Resistance base. To do so, Han, Chewbacca and Finn infiltrate the battle station, sabotage its shield and find Rey, who has since escaped. During their escape, they encounter Kylo Ren. Han tries to get his son to turn away from Snoke. He is unsuccessful in doing so, and instead Ren kills his father. Afterwards, Ren is defeated by Rey in a lightsaber battle. Meanwhile, the Resistance attacks the station with starfighters. Due to the sabotaged shield, Dameron manages to cause a chain reaction in the weapon, destroying it and the entire planet. Rey, Finn and Chewbacca manage to escape from the planet in time. After returning to the Resistance base, they evaluate the map and find Skywalker.

After the destruction of the Republic, the First Order attacks the last Resistance base on D'Qar. After the attacking battleship is destroyed with heavy casualties, the last survivors of the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa, are able to escape, but are repeatedly tracked down by the First Order. Meanwhile, Rey tries to win Luke back to the Resistance side and learn more about the Force. There, she also learns the exact reasons for Kylo Ren's massacre of Luke's order, as well as Skywalker's exile: Luke sensed the dark side flashing in the sleeping Ben Solo; on instinct, he drew his lightsaber to protect the galaxy from the dark's renewed grip. But when Luke realized what he was about to do, Ben awoke and crossed over to the dark side for good. Rey feels a sporadic mental connection to Kylo Ren, through which each can see and sense the other. Thus, Rey believes she can tell that Kylo Ren is supposedly still dealing with some inner conflict with himself. She seeks him out on Snoke's ship to convince him to switch to the Resistance side. However, it turns out to be a trap set by Snoke, who has used Kylo Ren's mental connection as bait to lure her onto the ship and draw her to the dark side of the Force. During the confrontation with Snoke, he demands that Kylo Ren kill Rey. However, Kylo Ren manages to kill Snoke in a moment of inattention with Rey's lightsaber, and declares himself supreme leader of the First Order.

Fleeing from the First Order, the Resistance suffers repeated casualties, and a pitiful remnant seeks final refuge in escape pods at an abandoned base on Crait. In the Battle of Crait, Luke comes to the aid of the Resistance in the form of a Force projection to help the survivors escape with Rey and Leia in the Millennium Falcon, which they succeed in doing. Weakened by appearing as a projection, Luke dies and becomes one with the Force.

After Kylo Ren assumes power over the First Order, Emperor Palpatine finally reveals that he survived the Battle of Endor through a transmission across the galaxy. Kylo Ren fears losing his power and, with the help of a Sith wayfinder, meets Palpatine at his location on Exegol, a planet in the unknown regions of the galaxy, to destroy him once and for all. However, Palpatine offers Kylo Ren a gigantic fleet of Star Destroyers, which have the same technology as the Death Stars, to re-establish the Empire, the Last Order, on the condition that he destroy Rey; in doing so, he reveals two things to him: Rey is the Emperor's granddaughter. His son, Rey's father, turned his back on his family. To protect his daughter from the Emperor's henchmen, he hid her on Jakku; however, he and Rey's mother were discovered and murdered.

Rey lives and trains at the Resistance base. There, news of Palpatine's survival and plans reaches her; she sets out with Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, C-3PO and BB-8 in search of Exegol. With the help of Lando Calrissian, she finds a way to the second Death Star, in the wreckage of which she finds the second Sith pathfinder, but is confronted by Kylo Ren, who destroys it. In battle, Rey severely wounds Kylo Ren, but heals his fatal injury with the help of the Force. During the battle, his mother Leia Organa calls him by his actual name "Ben", after which she dies in the presence of R2-D2. After Rey's escape, Kylo Ren remains on the rubble of the second Death Star. There, his father appears to him in a vision that leads him back to the light side of the Force.

Rey sets off for Exegol with Kylo Ren's pathfinder, allowing the Resistance to follow her there. The Resistance asks for help in the battle against the First Order through radio signals throughout the galaxy. Rey meets Palpatine, who offers her the Sith Throne as his granddaughter in order to drain her of her life energy and thus bring himself back to life for good. Rey, with Kylo Ren's help, is able to resist and kill the Emperor, but is so badly injured herself that she dies. Kylo Ren manages to bring Rey back to life by using the Force to transfer his life energy to her, but dies in the process and becomes one with the Force. The Resistance defeat the Star Destroyer fleet and the Sith Empire falls. Rey heads to Tatooine to bury Luke and Leia's lightsabers at the Lars Farm site, symbolic of the Skywalker twins. She takes the name Skywalker in their memory.

Rey, protagonist of the Sequel Trilogy.


Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.


Anakin Skywalker joined the dark side of the Force during the prequel trilogy