It seems cliché to speculate about a sci-fi series showing us the future but, consider it with me.
The way we share stories has changed a lot over the course of human history. There were, and still are, oral stories; there are cave paintings; there were clay and wax tablets; scrolls; and eventually the codex which is the book most commonly seen in the west today. Let’s also not forget broadsides for poetry and declarations, pamphlets and leaflets for quickly sharing small amounts of information, and chapbooks all before we get to the common hardcovers and paperbacks in bookstores and libraries now (Lamb, 2021). Writers challenge and change formats and so we also have graphic novels and books like House of Leaves. All these types of books are relatively self-contained and offer the reader a chance to escape into another world for a while. There are duologues, trilogies, and sometimes longer series like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Occasionally a book, or series, breaks free and becomes a movie or TV series. The Star Wars saga, on the other hand, is doing something entirely different (thanks Disney!) and new and more series just might follow suite. Star Wars created a universe…
George Lucas and other Star Wars creators are hardly the first to create imagined worlds. J.R.R Tolkien arguably set the stage for world building in modern times. A philologist, professor, and author, with the Lord of the Rings series (and The Hobbit & Silmarillion) Tolkien created not only great stories but an entire world complete with maps, a history, deities, and several new languages. Eventually there were six movies as well.
But in between the Lord of the Rings books and movies, George Lucas came along and turned a crazy idea into a wildly popular film trilogy. Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope was released in theaters in 1977 (imdb). The movie release was preceded in 1976 by a paperback novel originally titled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by someone with the name of Alan Dean Foster. The author’s identity would later be revealed as none other than George Lucas and the title would be updated to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope to match the movie (Wookiepedia). From the start the franchise was co-existing in a variety of media. Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi would have movie releases and book releases that relatively matched each other (Wookiepedia). In between the original trilogy movie and book releases and the prequel films, fans and sci-fi writers would created an entire canon with adventures for the characters the world fell in love with in the late 70s. Things began to shift with the release of the prequel film trilogy: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. The books accompanying these films were commissioned from known sci-fi authors and while they follow the main plot of the movies, there’s deviation. Characters are more nuanced and the transformation of Anakin Skywalker is less sudden (you all know he’s Luke’s dad and Darth Vader right? It’s been like 41 years…). The saga then branches out into animation in 2008 with Clone Wars and everything changes when Disney purchases Lucasfilm in 2012 (IMDB and Dork Side of the Force). Disney had plans for Star Wars. It was going from a world to an omniverse. Films jump from the end of Return of the Jedi to the children of Han Solo & Leia Organa and Emperor Palpatine in The Force Awakens. How do fans find out what happened in the meantime? With books like the Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig. The Rebels animated series bridges the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope but how do we know what happened to Anakin’s Palawan Ahsoka before Rebels? There’s a book for that. What happened to Han Solo before Solo? How does Leia mentally deal with founding a new republic and being Darth Vader’s daughter and Luke Skywalker’s twin? Yup, book, book, and book. There are also graphic novels, young adult books, and video games that have pieces of the story to bring every type of media together. Star Wars can be more than escapism if a fan so chooses.
Other book series are working on getting in on the action. Besides the books, a play, and two movie series (Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts) the Harry Potter series has the Wizarding World where fans can be sorted into houses and 2022 will be the release of an RPG for video gamers. Leigh Bardugo has two trilogies and a duopoly in her Grishaverse and just added a popular Netflix series. Star Wars blew apart the concept of world building in fiction and has embraced every type of media there is. The books remain a backbone but have raised the bar as to where books can take you. As digital technology advances and the definition of a book and storytelling evolve, what comes next? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Citations (not linked above)
Lamb, A. (2021). The book: Part 1. Course reader from S681: The Book - 1450+ at IUPUI.