Category The Star Wars Galaxy Explained

Find out all you need to know about Star Wars Universe here. The Star Wars Galaxy Explained links to information about characters and events from A Galaxy Far Far Away.

We celebrate everything Star Wars. We offer Star Wars news, debate and commentary of the classic movies and the new products from Disney and Lucas Film.

If you love Star Wars movies and the Mandalorian TV show, get involved in the discussions.

Star Wars Gifts

Star Wars Characters

Find out more about your favourite Star Wars Characters.

Darth Vader

Darth Vader is a Sith Lord that led the Galactic Empire on behalf of Darth Sidious. Once, a powerful Jedi Knight named Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader turned to the Dark Side of the Force and set out to crush the Jedi Order.

Darth Vader

Din Djarin / The Mandalorian

The Star Wars hit TV series The Mandalorian, follows the adventures of Din Djarin during the New Republic era. The first two series depict the story of the rescue and return home of a young force-sensitive creature named Grogu from the same species as Master Yoda.

Din Djarin / The Mandalorian

Darth Maul

Maul sports a double-bladed lightsaber which he was trained to use in combat as a Sith warrior. Trained by the Sith to be a living weapon, Maul is one of the deadliest warriors in the history of the Order.

Darth Maul

Master Yoda

Master Yoda was a force-sensitive Jedi who originated from a mysterious species. Near the end of his life, Yoda trained Luke Skywalker in mastering his Force abilities which ultimately led to the defeat of the Galactic Empire.

Master Yoda

Princess Leia

Princess Leia Organa is a major character in the Star Wars Galaxy. Being raised in the Alderaanian royal family, she became a political and military leader that helped overthrow the Galactic Empire and the First Order.

Princess Leia

Baby Yoda / Grogu

Grogu, known to many as “The Child” or “Baby Yoda” is a Force-sensitive infant from the same species as Master Yoda.

Little is known about the Child’s past as he had been separated from his parents at an early age and taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Baby Yoda / Grogu

The Bad Batch

The Bad Batch are a clone commando special forces squad that has the official title of Clone Force 99. The force was active during the Clone Wars.

The squad was led by Clone Sergeant ‘Hunter’ who was known for having enhanced sensory abilities. It also consisted of four other clone commandos who had been genetically modified.

The Bad Batch

Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano was introduced to Star Wars fans as the Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker. Since her first appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ahsoka has become a fan favourite.

Ahsoka became a major character in the Clone Wars TV series as well as featuring in Star Wars Rebels, The Mandalorian Season 2 and as a voiceover cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Ahsoka Tano

Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious

Emperor Palpatine is a Dark Lord of the Sith in the Order of the Sith Lords. Also known as Darth Sidious, Palpatine served as the last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic before overthrowing it.

Having destroyed the Galactic Republic, Emperor Palpatine became the first Emperor of the Galactic Empire.

Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious

R2-D2

R2-D2 has had a significant role throughout the Skywalker Saga of the Star Wars movies.

Artoo served Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, and Luke Skywalker in turn, helping sway the outcome of their various battles and adventures.

Often teamed up with the protocol droid C-3PO, R2-D2 has been trusted to complete important missions that helped change the course of Star Wars history.

R2-D2

Asajj Ventress

Trained by Count Dooku in the ways of the Dark Side, Asajj Ventress is a deadly assassin in the Star Wars galaxy.

Fighting with twin red-bladed lightsabers, the Dathomirian warrior has fought many battles against Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

When she was betrayed by her Sith Master, Dooku, Ventress returned to the Nightsisters becoming a bounty hunter.

Asajj Ventress

Asajj Ventress

Ever since this cute Star Wars droid first appeared in The Force Awakens fans have taken this little robot into their hearts.

BB8 is a spherical orange and silver robot who has a free-moving head. The droid was designed by JJ Abrams as a simple ball with a dome on top.

BB-8

Star Wars Movies

Star Wars IV – A New Hope was the film that kicked off the interest in Science Fiction films, before it, the genre had only modest success. George Lucas had trouble convincing movie executives that the film would make money and to put their faith in him to make the film.

Eventually, 20th Century Fox conceded and gave him ten million dollars to make the film. They had so little faith in the project that they gave him all the licensing authority.

The film stormed through the box office and was the highest grossing film until Jurassic Park was released.

If we did not have Star Wars IV, A New Hope or it had been a failure, we would never have had the Star Trek Movies, alien Quadrilogy, Star Trek Next Generation, Flash Gordon (80’s Film), Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galatica.

The old black and white original series of Flash Gordon was one of the many influences on George, especially with the writing at the start. The writing had appeared in the black and white Flash Gordon series of the 1930s.

George had even once tried to get the rights to Flash Gordon but he failed so created his own unique space fantasy.

Just imagine that if he had indeed obtained the rights to Flash, would be in awe of those films as we do Star Wars now. Most likely because it was the special effects that influenced our love for the films in addition to the storyline.

It was originally conceived as a series of nine films, the middle three were to be filmed first, the reason George gave was that they were the strongest of the nine.

It took him a long time to get round to developing the prequels because he wanted to concentrate on other projects including such turkeys as Howard the Duck and Tucker. The films were re-released in 1997 and it proved their magic hadn’t left.

The films shouldn’t be seen as three separate franchise but three groups of the same franchise.

A number of characters span the two existing groups, they include Boba Fett, C-3PO, Chewbacca, Jabba, the Hutt, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Palpatine, R2-D2 and Yoda.

The films are set long ago in a galaxy far far away, one which we would not be able to see without the most powerful telescope.

There are no mention of Earth or of our solar system, no mention of which constellation we should be looking at. Star Wars is pure fantasy as opposed to Star Trek which is grounded in psychics (that is if for can believe we can travel to planets out there.).

The first Star Wars film was essentially an updated story of a peasant who sets out to rescue a princess with a magician helping him. In Star Wars, the magicians are either Jedi who use the powers for good and Sith who use the Force for evil.

The Force

The Force can’t be used to turn someone into another form like what Ergo from Krull could do. The Force could be used to move objects around the place, mind control push back an attacking force. The Force according to lore in Star Wars – The Old Republic on-line game was discovered on the planet Tython but it is open to debate.

Dead Jedi are able to come back as a ghost to continue mentoring their padawans as we have seen with Obi-Wan Kenobi returning after being killed by Darth Vader. There are rumours that Palpatine may be back for the sequels as a ghost as he instructs a new Sith Lord to take control of the galaxy.

There are a number of people who dress up as a Jedi and proclaim that is their faith. In the UK, the Guardian newspaper reports that in 2001, 330,000 said Jedi was their religion on the Government census but dropped to 176,632 in the 2011 census.

Palpatine

Palpatine is the main protagonist in all the films although he is only mentioned in a New Hope. Palpatine starts off a lowly senator from the planet Naboo who uses his alter ego Darth Siduous to plant the seeds of his rise to power.

He manages to corrupt greedy Trade Federation in starting a crisis with new tax on trade routes from Naboo. The crisis enables Palpatine to gain control of the Galactic Senate then have his own army, the clone soldiers made by the cloners on Kamino.

Whilst trying to gain control of the Senate, he also manages to corrupt Anakin Skywalker over fears over Padme Amidala, Anakin’s wife life. Once General Grevious is killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, he takes absolute power in the galaxy.

In the originals, he appears in holographic format to give commands to Darth Vader. In the third and final film of the originals, Star Wars VI – Return of the Jedi, Palpatine moves to the Death Star to oversee the completion of the new world and ultimately see the destruction of the Rebel Alliance fleet.

In the final scenes, the prophecy of Anakin Skywalker is fulfiled as Darth Vader kills the Emperor by throwing him down a chute.

The Original Films

The first story was an updating of the old story of a peasant hero rescuing the princess.

George Lucas took inspiration from other stories including an old black and white Japanese movie in which the story is seen through the eyes of the lowest importance, the slaves but in the first film it was the robots C-3PO and R2-D2.

Attention of the main characters then switches from them to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia. The part where Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are to be killed by being thrown into the Pit in ‘Return of the Jedi’ is influenced by Pirate Stories of prisoners being forced to walk the plank.

The films always tried something new, which visually was the planets; Lucas tried to avoid having two planets the same. Although Yavin IV and Moon of Endor were the same, you never really got to see much of Yavin IV so he reused the planet landscape later for Moon of Endor, in the respect that both planets are forrest worlds.

Tatooine -> Desert, Dagobah -> Swamp, Yavin IV and Moon of Endor -> Forest, Hoth -> Snow, Bespin -> cloud Planet,. In the later prequel films, Genosis -> Mars Like, Naboo -> Forested Community, Coruscant -> City Planet, Kamino -> Waterworld.

In the first Star Wars film, it was Luke who had eyes for Princess Leia, in the second film, Star Wars V – The Empire Strike Back, they kissed to upset Solo.

At that point in time, you did not know they were brother and sister. However as the second film panned out, Han and Leia’s attraction became more evident culminating in the kiss before he is frozen.

There was an attempt to make Leia sexier than she was in Star Wars V – The Empire Strikes Back. This was done by her wearing a bikini in Return of the Jedi to many mens delight. One of the biggest gripes about the way she looked in the first film was the way her hair was done up but in the second and third films, it become free-flowing.

Although they were meant to be lovers on screen, they were a few arguments between them.

One example of this was that Han had changed the words to the script at the end of ‘Star Wars V – The Empire Strikes Back’, instead of saying ‘I Love You’ to Leia, he said ‘I know’ Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo thought saying ‘I Know’ was more cocky, more like Solo.

Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were not the first choices for their respective parts. Christopher Walken had been the first choice but as he was unable to do it, Harrison Ford took the position instead.

At the time of auditioning for Star Wars, roles for Carrie, the horror film was being auditioned for at the same time. Sissy Spacek had been lined up as Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher as Carrie.

The role of Carrie in the film of the same name required the actress to do a nude scene which Ms Fisher was not happy to do so the two actresses swapped roles. The rest is history.

The original name for the third film of the original trilogy was ‘Revenge of the Jedi’ but George Lucas decided revenge is not a trait of the Jedi. Many people were upset about the appearance of the Ewoks being so cute-looking.

Star Wars – Prequels

What has to be one of the most eagerly awaited prequels of all time finally hit the big screens in 1999. The prequels showed Palpatine rise from a Senator to become the Emperor of the Galaxy. The first film ‘The Phantom Menace’ did not live up to its expectations.

One of the reasons was because people couldn’t stand watching Jar Jar in the film. This had a knock-on effect that not as many people watched the second film. Jar Jar was the clumsy oaf who helped the heroes in their battle against the Trade Federation.

The first film is about discovering young Anakin and the rise of Senator Palpatine to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Palpatine using his alter-ego Darth Siduous sets out to manipulate the Trade Federation into starting a crisis with the planet Naboo.

The dispute between the two factions (Naboo, Trade Federation) enables Palpatine to become the Chancellor. The films also explains how Anakin Skywalker who would later become Darth Vader began his training as a Jedi.

The second film dealt with the creation of the Clone Army which in the second three films are the dreaded Stormtroopers. We also see the first stages of Anakin moving to the dark side of the force because of his dislike of Obi-Wan and the loss of his mother.

A romance starts to blossoms between Anakin and Queen Padme Amidala. In the first film, Padme Amidala was a young woman, in the second film, she had not aged whereas Anakin Skywalker who was a child in the first film is now an adult and ready to romance Padme Amidala.

The first film was a let-down but the second film was a marked improvement.

The third film was the best of the three prequels, it was darker that previous and there were no Ewoks running around to ruin it al..

The film showed how Chancellor Palpatine became the Emperor and how Old Republic turned into the Rebel Alliance.

The films name was a play on the fact that the original name for Episode VI was Revenge of the Jedi before deciding that Revenge was not a Jedi trait.

Star Wars – Sequels

Having stalled with their own science-fiction storyline with John Carter, Disney bought Lucasfilm for billions of dollars.

The trilogy follows a 19-year-old girl named Rey, and the plight of the Resistance against the First Order, which has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire.

Rey learns the ways of the Force under Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa while searching for her parents (who mysteriously abandoned her as a child), and confronts Kylo Ren—the son of Leia and Han Solo, nephew of Luke, and grandson of Anakin Skywalker—who has fallen to the dark side.

The trilogy consists of episodes VII through IX, chronologically following the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, serving as the final act of the “Skywalker saga”. Lucas had planned a sequel trilogy as early as 1976, but canceled it by 1981.

He ended up producing only the first six episodes and for a time described these as comprising the complete story. The sequel trilogy concept was revived when The Walt Disney Company entered negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm in mid-2011.

Lucas produced new story treatments, but according to him these were largely discarded. Both the acquisition and plans to produce the trilogy were announced in late 2012.

The first installment, The Force Awakens, was released on December 18, 2015. It was directed by J. J. Abrams who co-wrote the screenplay with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt.

Original trilogy cast members including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher reprised their roles, co-starring alongside franchise newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac.

The trilogy’s second installment, The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017, with Rian Johnson as screenwriter and director, and most of the cast returning.

The final installment, The Rise of Skywalker, was released on December 20, 2019. It was directed by Abrams, who co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Terrio.

Star Wars Merch and Gifts

Follow the links below to find pages of curated gifts, merch and collectables from the Star Wars galaxy.

If you know someone who loves collecting star Wars statues, comics, figures or toys, you will find the perfect Star Wars gift below.

Star Wars Gifts

The Mandalorian Gifts

The Millennium Falcon Lego Set

Star Wars Gifts For Kids

The Best Star Wars Costumes For Adults