One franchise, taken apart. Star Wars began as one film in 1977, written and directed by George Lucas, and renamed Episode IV in 1981. By 2014 it was six live-action films, the one series that would survive the shelf, well over a hundred novels by dozens of authors, and comics and games. Many hands, one name.
George Lucasmade the films
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Lucasfilm, owned by Disneyowns the name
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Dozens of authorswrote the novels
Lesson 1 first. In 2014, who was the author of Star Wars?
The company that owned the name, Lucasfilm, which Disney had bought in 2012. Lucas made the films; the company decides.
Right. Lucas created it and sold it. From late 2012 the list belonged to a new owner, and lesson 2 says the list is the owner's.
The authors of the novels, because they wrote most of the story.
Not yet. Dozens of hands, and not one of them owned the name. In 2014 the owner set all their work aside in one morning, which is the proof.
George Lucas, because he made the first film.
Not yet. He made it and sold it in 2012 for $4.05 billion. A franchise outlives its maker's ownership, and the list went with the sale.
Six filmshints
↓→
The novelsevery gap filled
↓→
55,000 entries2012
Lessons 3 and 4: the promises. Six films dropped hints about the past and the future, and the novels filled every gap with facts: what happened after the last film, who married whom, which planet fell. Lucasfilm hired a keeper in 2000, and by 2012 his database held 55,000 entries.
Move the year and watch the pile grow: live-action films, and years of promises hanging off them.
Live-action films1
Years of promises0
Year: 1977
One film. One man's promises, and he is in the room.
Live-action films3
Years of promises14
Year: 1991
Three films, and the novels have begun, including Heir to the Empire, which told what happened five years after the last film.
Live-action films6
Years of promises28
Year: 2005
Six films, the prequels done. They had to fit every hint the first three dropped, and added their own: a count from a drop of blood.
Live-action films6
Years of promises37
Year: 2014
Six films, and well over a hundred novels by now. The year the owner put the novels on the shelf.
Live-action films11
Years of promises42
Year: 2019
Eleven live-action films. The new ones were sold on the name; the last brought back an emperor who died in 1983.
Lesson 7. Why did the prequels, made from 1999 to 2005, have the hardest list to keep?
Because they were made by a different company.
Not yet. Same company, same maker. The hands had not changed; the time the story was set in had, and that time was already described.
Because they were set in a past that three films had already described in hints, and every hint was a promise.
Right. A father who was a pilot, an old war, a teacher. The prequels had to make all of it true, and then they added the count in the blood, which the old films now always had.
Because more novels existed by then.
Not yet. More novels did exist. The hints the prequels had to keep were in the three films, not the novels.
Move the control.
$4.05 billion2012
↓→
A film in 2015
↓→
Twenty years of novelsalready told it
Lesson 5: the sale. In 2012 Disney agreed to pay $4.05 billion for Lucasfilm and wanted new films, the first in 2015. Lesson 8: by then twenty years of novels had already told what happened after the last film. The new films were ordered before anyone had decided how to deal with that.
Each card is something Star Wars did. Which fix is it?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
1999: the Force, an energy field in 1977, is given a count in the blood
2014: the novels, comics and games are kept in print as Legends and stop counting
2000: one person is hired to build a database of every fact
2019: an emperor who died in 1983 is back, with one line saying somehow he returned
2012: after the sale, the keeper becomes a team that reads every film, show and book
1999: the Force, an energy field in 1977, is given a count in the blood → Retcon
Not yet. A retcon, by a reveal. The old films still happened; the Force in them was always this, and nobody in them said so.
2014: the novels, comics and games are kept in print as Legends and stop counting → Shelf
Not yet. The shelf. Main story kept, side stories set aside and still sold, all announced on one day in April 2014.
2000: one person is hired to build a database of every fact → Keeper
Not yet. A keeper. The Holocron is the list made into a job, read against every draft.
2019: an emperor who died in 1983 is back, with one line saying somehow he returned → Retcon
Not yet. A retcon, by a reveal, and the thinnest kind: the old death stands, the film says he survived it, and barely says how.
2012: after the sale, the keeper becomes a team that reads every film, show and book → Keeper
Not yet. A keeper, made bigger. The Story Group is the same job with more hands.
2Retcons
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1Shelf
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2Keepers
Right. Two retcons, one shelf, two keepers. No reboot and no branch: Star Wars has never emptied its films or drawn a second path. It revealed, it shelved, and it hired.
Legendson the shelf
↓→
Thrawnback on the list, 2016
Lesson 12 had a way back. In 2016 Grand Admiral Thrawn, from the 1991 novel, was brought from the shelf back onto the list by the series Star Wars Rebels, in its third season. The shelf had kept the book in print, so the owner could take one thing back. The rest stayed Legends.
Lesson 13. Picture a film the owner has ordered with a dead villain on the poster, and keepers who read every draft. Tap the only one who could say no. Who chose the 2019 return is not on record; this is the course's model.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
The keepersread every draft
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The ownerordered the film
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The readersremember the death
The owner
Right. In the model, only the owner. A keeper's no is for drafts, and a film the owner ordered is not a draft a keeper refuses. Readers can only remember.
The keepers
Not yet. A keeper can say the death is on the list; a keeper cannot stop a film the owner wants. A decision taken above the list comes down to a keeper as a fact to record.
The readers
Not yet. They remember, and they say so afterwards. Remembering is what readers do; stopping a film is not.
Freedoma shelf, a thin retcon
vsvs
Trusta keeper, the films kept
Lesson 14, the whole course. Where has Star Wars stood on the line between freedom and trust since 2012?
All the way to freedom: the list means nothing.
Not yet. The six films have never been emptied or rewritten, and a team reads every draft. The list holds for everything the owner does not overrule.
In the middle, leaning to freedom: it kept the films and hired keepers, but shelved a hundred novels and brought back a dead emperor with one line.
Right. Both halves are true at once. The keeper protects the list from writers; the owner can spend it when a film is made. That is the trade, and it is the one every long story makes.
All the way to trust: nothing has been broken since the keepers came.
Not yet. A hundred novels were set aside in 2014 and an emperor returned in 2019. A keeper's job is drafts; those were decisions taken above the list.
Lesson complete
Star Wars holds the whole course: many hands, one owner, a pile of promises, a sale, fixes, a keeper.