Star Wars is the epic space opera franchise of the United States, centered on the film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters "long ago in the distant galaxy.".

The franchise began in 1977 with the release of Star Wars (later renamed Episode 4: new hope, 1981), which has become a global popular cultural phenomenon. The sequels "Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "return of the Jedi" (1983) followed. These three films constitute the original Star Wars Trilogy. The prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, and was well received by critics and fans. The sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars: the awakening of the force. All seven films have been nominated for the Academy Awards (the first two films have won), and have achieved commercial success with a total box office revenue of more than $7.5 billion, making Star Wars the third highest earning movie series. Derivative films include the animations Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and Grand Theft Auto one (2016), the first in a planned series of selected films.

The series produced a wide range of media franchises, including books, TV series, computer and video games, and comic books, all of which have the same continuity as movies, leading to the remarkable development of the world of the series of novels, rather than the classic works with the invalid Star Wars legend label. Star Wars also won the Guinness world record for "the most successful franchise of movie products.". In 2015, the total value of Star Wars franchise is estimated to be $42 billion, making Star Wars the second highest earning media franchise ever.

In 2012, Walt Disney acquired Lucas pictures for us $4.06 billion, and obtained the distribution rights of all subsequent Star Wars films, starting from the awakening of the force in 2015. The former publisher 20th Century Fox retains its rights to issue in kind. The first two Star Wars trilogies, with permanent rights to the original 1977 film, continue to hold the rights to the prequel trilogy and the first two sequels of new hope until May 2020. Walt Disney Pictures owns all star wars digital distribution rights, excluding new hope.