The 'Star Wars' series begins where George Lucas believed the story was most accessible

A deep dive into the long road to making 'Star Wars'

In this podcast, Chris Taylor, author of "How 'Star Wars' Conquered the Universe," details the long road—lined with studio rejections, a dismissive crew, glacially slow special effects, and last-minute edits—George Lucas traveled to see "Star Wars" through to its release.

How George Lucas used Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey' to revise 'Star Wars'

Lucas was struggling with an unwieldy early draft of "Star Wars" when he discovered the literary theorist Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," which compared the narrative journeys of heroes across cultures, suggesting they generally followed the same path. Lucas used the concept to revise "Star Wars" and credited Campbell's book with clarifying the story.

A novelization of 'Star Wars' preceded the movie–and was a massive success

The book "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" was released in November 1976, six months before the film it was based on hit theaters. By February, the novel had sold out of its initial print run of 125,000 copies and would quickly sell over 3.5 million copies.

The original 'Star Wars' was quietly showcased at Comic‑Con in 1976 to little fanfare

In a bold pre‑release move on July 22, 1976, Lucasfilm set up an eight-foot booth and slideshow at San Diego Comic‑Con, introducing the then‑titled "The Star Wars"—with no premiere buzz, just intrigue among a few hundred early fans.

'American Graffiti' gave George Lucas the credibility to have 'Star Wars' produced

The idea for "Star Wars" was initially rejected by studios. It wasn't until "American Graffiti," Lucas' 1973 nostalgic comedy, became an unexpected hit that anyone was willing to produce what Lucas called his "space film."

'The Empire Strikes Back' was influenced by 'Apocalypse Now,' a movie George Lucas was originally supposed to direct

Lucas provided the name for the gritty movie about the Vietnam War (and was supposed to direct it before it was taken on by his friend, Francis Ford Coppola), but the 1980 installment in the "Star Wars" saga features several parallels to "Apocalypse Now," including the dark, mysterious setting and aerial fight scenes.

Legendary director Brian De Palma hated his first viewing of 'Star Wars'

The "Carrie" and "Mission: Impossible" director was invited by his friend George Lucas to watch an early cut of the first "Star Wars," a draft that lacked many of the special effects that would be added later. De Palma was highly critical, telling Lucas that "The Force" was an awful name for the spiritual power Luke Skywalker eventually comes to embrace.

The numbers behind the 'Star Wars' franchise

The "Star Wars" movies include some of the biggest blockbusters in Hollywood history, with the original film, 1977's "A New Hope," earning a 2,400% profit. Only one of the franchise's movies (2018's "Solo") has lost money at the box office.

See the early concept art for 'Star Wars'

George Lucas asked artist Ralph McQuarrie to create reference images to help prospective producers understand his vision for the "Star Wars" universe, and drafted early versions of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and other characters. You can check out a gallery featuring dozens of the images below.

Read a 1971 magazine feature on Lucas' debut film, the sci-fi 'THX 1138'

Almost a decade before the arrival of "Star Wars," George Lucas directed "THX 1138," a grim science fiction film about a dystopian future in the vein of George Orwell's "1984." This article from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer features a young George Lucas, who developed the film from a short he worked on while a student at the University of Southern California just a few years earlier.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

How 'Star Wars' changed science fiction

The popularity of "Star Wars" shifted the market away from the more literary, and sometimes cynical, science fiction of the 1960s and '70s. In the wake of George Lucas' space opera, publishers and studios wanted similarly optimistic adventure stories. In time, though, writers like William Gibson would react against that and, in turn, create the "cyber punk" subgenre.

How 'Star Wars' turned toys into collectibles

George Lucas licensed the "Star Wars" franchise to Kenner Products, which created small figurines that became wildly popular. By the 1977 Christmas season, they were facing a shortage and sold mail-in rainchecks, effectively allowing customers to purchase figures that weren't yet produced. The strategy worked, portraying the toys as valuable collectibles whose price would appreciate.

Lucasfilm discouraged fan fiction that sexualized its characters

The self-published fan fiction zines of the '60s, '70s, and '80s were obscure enough that they rarely attracted the attention of the copyright holders of their source material. But Lucasfilm, the production company behind the "Star Wars" films, threatened legal action against fans who published X-rated stories and "homosexual expressions of love" featuring its characters.

Watch the 'Star Wars Holiday Special,' a 1978 spin-off that became a cult classic

The CBS television special is a hokey variety show that was widely panned after it aired and, as a result, was never officially released on home video. George Lucas had little involvement, though it did feature the original cast alongside guest stars like Bea Arthur. Interestingly, it also features Boba Fett's first appearance.

Listen to the 'Star Wars' disco album

The 1977 film inspired disco producer Meco to record danceable covers of sections of John Williams' score. The lead single from "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" eventually topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two consecutive weeks.

'Attack of the Clones' was the first major feature film to be shot digitally

George Lucas was frustrated by the degradation of film and began testing digitally shot scenes with 1999's "The Phantom Menace." For the 2002 "Star Wars" film, he decided to go all in with HD digital cameras, leading to brighter pictures, a quicker review process, and a more seamless editing process.

Many believe modern fan fiction began with 'Star Trek'

While people have always reinterpreted preexisting stories, fanfiction is often noted for its communal, interactive element, which many believe started with the TV show "Star Trek." Fans were so passionate about the show that they began creating stories set in the show's universe and sharing them with fellow superfans through conventions and self-published fanzines, like 1968's "Spockanalia."

The origins and evolution of the movie sequel

Sequels have long leveraged the financial success of a first installment into a second, or third, part, as far back as the earliest novels in the 18th century, like Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," which inspired countless spin-offs. The film...

The art of miniature sets in Hollywood

Many films utilize meticulously designed miniature sets to produce scenes that would otherwise be too big to film. While artsy filmmaker Wes Anderson is well-known for reviving this technique in an idiosyncratic style, more mainstream films like "Star Wars" and "Inception" rely heavily on small-scale sets filmed in such a way as to make them appear normal-sized. This nine-minute video breaks down how it all works.

Spielberg improvised most of the iconic D-Day scene from 'Saving Private Ryan'

Although action sequences are often tightly choreographed, one of cinema's most famous war scenes was mostly shot on the fly. Spielberg wrote seven pages (or approximately seven minutes of screen time) for the scene, though the final cut of the sequence was 25 minutes long.

Watch a supercut of the various iterations of SpaceX's Starship rocket

The first version, called Starhopper, was named with the vision of developing rocket stages that could safely land after use, enabling reusability to cut costs. The endeavor was an enormous engineering challenge that required years of testing.

Netflix's 'Kaleidoscope' experimented with non-linear storytelling

Netflix has regularly experimented with how it releases episodes, but its miniseries "Kaleidoscope" experimented with linear storytelling by crafting a show that supposedly allowed viewers to enjoy the show in any order they pleased.

The new history of the Milky Way

New data garnered from European spacecraft Gaia in 2018 allowed astronomers to rewrite the Milky Way Galaxy's biography. Charting the movements of more than 1 billion stars, Gaia made astronomers reassess how our galaxy formed. Evidence of long-ago collisions and proof of unexpected and unusual movements were just the beginning of the beginning.

Four directors shaped the evolving tone of the ‘Harry Potter’ films

Across eight movies, Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates each brought a distinct vision—from early wonder to darker maturity—charting the series’ shift from children’s fantasy to coming-of-age epic.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Bill Nye served as a lab assistant in the 'Back to the Future' animated series

Set in an alternate timeline after the conclusion of "Back to the Future Part III," the series starred Jules and Verne—the children of Dr. Emmett Brown and Clara. Each of its 26 episodes concluded with a live-action segment in which Bill Nye performed an experiment related to that episode.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.