thumbnail|250px|right|The cover of the 2004 DVD widescreen release of the original ''
Star Wars'' Trilogy.
'''''
Star Wars''''' is a science fantasy saga and fictional universe created by writer / producer / director George Lucas during the 1970s. The saga began with the film ''
Star Wars'' (later retitled ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''), which was released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox. The film became a pop culture worldwide phenomenon - spawning five more feature films, three spin-off films, five television series and an extensive collection of licensed books, comics, video games, and other products - all of which are set within a fictional "galaxy far, far away."
An example of the space opera genre, the ''
Star Wars'' story employs archetypal motifs common to both modern science fiction and ancient mythology, as well as the romantic music motifs now often associated with those genres.
Feature films
Although ''Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure'' played in theaters in Europe and Australia and is technically a ''
Star Wars'' feature film, it is generally associated with television, therefore it is covered in the television section below.
Setting
Unlike the traditional science fiction films preceding it, the ''
Star Wars'' world was initially portrayed as dirty and grimy, rather than sleek and futuristic. In interviews, Lucas tells of rubbing the new props with dirt to make them look weather-worn, a concept he has referred to as "a used or ancient future", a concept further popularized in the film Alien of the same era. He may have been inspired by Sergio Leone, whose 1960s films performed a similar function for the Western genre. It is also possible that he may have received the idea from Akira Kurosawa, who believed that it gave his actors a more authentic look.
Each ''
Star Wars'' film opens with the text, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." Lucas intended this as an allusion to the classic fairy tale opening of, "Once upon a time, in a faraway land..." This is the only way the Star Wars Galaxy has been defined in relation to the real world. To some, Lucas's allusion suggests that the films are to be interpreted as myths of the future, rather than literal events of the past. Lucas intentionally left the details open to interpretation.
[http://www.starwars.com/community/askjc/steve/askjc20000515.html] Events occur in the ''
Star Wars'' galaxy; although the film series itself spans the events of only two generations, other stories set in the ''
Star Wars'' universe (those from the so-called "Expanded Universe") cover
