Boasting a story and characters with universal appeal, a magnificent soundtrack, and special effects unlike anything that had been seen before, George Lucas’ Star Wars arrives, changing the movie industry and geekdom forever. Word-of-mouth – to say nothing of lines of moviegoers winding around the block, eager to immediately see the movie again – spreads like wildfire, and suddenly it’s okay to be a science fiction fan. 
With expectations riding higher than they probably ever will for another sequel in movie history, the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, hits theaters and kicks off a whole new wave of merchandise. Yoda, AT-ATs, and The Imperial March are unleashed on the world, while the cliffhanger ending hooks everyone in for the third movie with a shocking revelation about Luke’s lineage.
Capping off the original movie trilogy that began with Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back is released. Though there will be a small number of TV projects, as well as ongoing comic and prose fiction publishing, a popular role-playing game and video games, this is the last Star Wars movie for 16 years.
Riding a wave of hype, expectation, and merchandising that no film could hope to live up to, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released, starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, and Ian McDiarmid.
Emerging into a film landscape with more staunch fantasy and science fiction competition than the franchise has encountered in the past, Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones is released, starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Temuera Morrison, and Ian McDiarmid. The film’s most lasting contribution may be in setting up the Clone Wars storyline, which will be explored much more extensively on television in the coming years.
The final film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith is released, starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Smits, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ian McDiarmid.
Warner Bros. releases the CGI animated movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars, set during the Clone Wars between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III, and featuring the voice talents of Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, and James Arnold Taylor. Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Daniels, and Christopher Lee reprise the voices of their live action characters. This is also the launching point for the upcoming Clone Wars television series, animated in the same style.
The first Star Wars movie to be produced since Lucasfilm’s 2012 sale to Disney, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, premieres. Co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams, The Force Awakens stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac, alongside original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, all reprising their roles. Seemingly universal anticipation for the continuation of the saga propels the movie’s box office take past a half-billion dollars within half a month of release.
Disney and Lucasfilm release Rogue One, the first standalone Star Wars “anthology” film of a projected series of such self-contained films. Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, and Forest Whitaker star in a story that leads directly into the opening scenes of the original Star Wars. (This film will eventually receive its own prequel, the two-season streaming series Andor.)
The ninth Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, premieres. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac, alongside original trilogy stars Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. Laura Dern, Kelly Marie Tran, and Benicio Del Toro make their first appearances as new characters. An unusual amount of controversy emerges around the movie’s defiance of fan expectations involving the storyline and use of characters from the original Star Wars films, which will also follow the next two films in the franchise. This is the last Star Wars film to feature new scenes with the late Carrie Fisher as Leia.
The eleventh Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, premieres, starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac, alongside original trilogy stars Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Ian McDiarmid, and Harrison Ford (Carrie Fisher appears pothumously in scenes originally filmed for, but cut from, The Force Awakens in 2015). Perhaps inevitably, given the late 2010s’ tendency to politicize popular culture and its followers, and with the weight of fan expectations of a satisfying conclusion to the saga on it, the film proves somewhat controversial. Shortly after its release, work on future Star Wars feature films at Disney-owned Lucasfilm comes to a halt, and the franchise becomes a mainstay of Disney’s streaming video service.