Nick Hughes
Opinion Editor
There are few things people have almost globally heard of. This is more prevalent in pop culture than in other types of topics. One topic that people identify when they think of the phrase science fiction is Star Wars. The franchise which turned 40 last year is always one of the first series to come to mind.
It is not hard to see why either. The film franchise that launched in the 1970s has been successful since then. It had its shares of ups and downs, but it has always been there. It is more popular now with the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi than it has been since its resurgence with the prequel trilogy.
The originals came out in the late seventies and early to mid-eighties. The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn saw a rebirth of interest in the series in the nineties along with all the other books that were coming out about the series. Series such as the X wing series, the New Jedi order, the Hand of Thrawn duology, the black fleet crisis trilogy, the new rebellion book, the black star book, theCorellian trilogy, and many more were released.
Books were not the only thing that were coming out either. With the advent of video games there was a lot of new content for Star Wars coming from that medium. Games such as Shadows of the Empire for the Nintendo 64 and Star Wars Rogue Squadron for the same console ushered in a new way to tell stories about Star Wars. The two Knights of the Old republic games were huge successes as well. They were released for the PC and the original Xbox.
It is easy to say that Star Wars appeals to all ages because of all of this. Many people who saw the original films can watch them in a variety of ways now. With new perspectives and a lot of behind the scenes content. Such as the Star Wars blu Ray collection. Which featured around 10 hours of new behind the scenes content. Gamers can enjoy it because of all the quality games that have come out as a result of the series. The latest game being Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Book readers have a huge library of books to read. They amount of individual Star Wars books that continue the story number in the hundreds easily. The Disney acquisition of the franchise is just continuing this trend.
Star Wars is one of the most iconic franchises ever. It is hard for most people to not know who Darth Vader is. Even if is the guy in black that looks scary. Either way, Star War fans are global and it does not appear to be stopping any time soon.
