Cultural impact of Star Wars

20th Century Fox optioned Star Wars. When it unexpectedly became the decade's blockbuster, grossing $100 million in three months, Fox's stock soared from $6 to $25 per share and generated revenues of $1.2 million a day for the studio. Fox purchased the Aspen skiing and Pebble Beach golf corporations with the increased cash flow and still declared excess profits in 1977. Income from Star Wars re-releases, sequels, and merchandising enriched the studio in the following decades. Star Wars helped Fox to change from an almost bankrupt production company to a thriving media conglomerate.[5]

Star Wars fundamentally changed the aesthetics and narratives of Hollywood films,[6] switching the focus of Hollywood-made films from deep, meaningful stories based on dramatic conflict, themes and irony to sprawling special-effects-laden blockbusters, as well as changing the Hollywood film industry in fundamental ways. Before Star Wars, special effects in films had not appreciably advanced since the 1950s.[6] Star Wars was also important in the movement towards the use of computer-generated imagery in films.[2] The commercial success of Star Wars created a boom in state-of-the-art special effects in the late 1970s. There was increased investment in special effects. Companies like Industrial Light & Magic and Digital Productions were created to provide them. The 1977 Star Wars pioneered the genre pastiche, where several classic film genres are combined in one film. In Star Wars, the genres were science fiction, the Western, the war film, and the quasi-mystical epic.[5] Along with Jaws, Star Wars started the tradition of the summer blockbuster film in the entertainment industry, where films open on many screens at the same time and profitable franchises are important.[2][4] It created the model for the major film trilogy and showed that merchandising rights on a film could generate more money than the film itself.[3]

The holographic video effect associated with Star Wars served as a technological tool for CNN during its 2008 Election Night coverage. CNN reporter Jessica Yellin and musician will.i.am looked as though they were in the network's New York City studios talking face-to-face with hosts Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, when in reality, they were in Chicago at Barack Obama's rally. The process involved Yellin and will.i.am standing in front of a blue screen in a special tent, while being shot by 35 HD cameras.[7]

Another impact Star Wars made on film making was its use of the "Monomyth" or "The Hero's Journey" found in Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. While George Lucas wrote through 4 drafts of the film, between the first and second drafts, he read Joseph Campbell's book titled The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He was surprised to find that his first draft followed many of its principles.[8] This epic structure at the deepest roots of the films was a major factor in its success. Many future films successfully adopted the monomyth, such as The Matrix trilogy, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit trilogy to name a few.[9]

In 2019, Star Wars web series The Mandalorian character The Child, also known as Baby Yoda, gained popularity with toys and an Internet meme.[10]

• Return of the Ewok (1982): a 24-minute fictional mockumentary, focusing on the decision of Warwick Davis to become an actor and act as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi.[11]
• R2-D2: Beneath the Dome (2002): a 20-minute mockumentary, focusing on the "true" story of R2-D2's life. It was made as a side-project by some of the crew of Attack of the Clones, released on television in three installments, and later on DVD.[12]

The Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on modern American pop culture, both the films and characters have received official parodies in numerous films and television productions, such as Family Guy's tribute-spoof season premiere episode called "Blue Harvest", in dedication of the saga's 30th anniversary. A sequel to the episode as a parody to The Empire Strikes Back titled "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" aired in the eighth season and another parody, "It's a Trap!", aired in the ninth season.

Unofficial film parodies:

• Hardware Wars, a 13-minute 1978 spoof which Lucas has called his favorite Star Wars parody.[13]
• Spaceballs, a feature film by Mel Brooks which featured effects done by Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic.[14]

Film references:

• WarGames (1983), David Lightman hacks into the computer company called Protovision, A deep voice in a line says "Protovision, I have you now!", A reference of Darth Vader's line from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• Kevin Smith's films such as Clerks heavily reference the films, in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) decide to make a pornographic film called Star Whores to get them out of debt.

Other:

• Robot Chicken has produced three television specials satirizing the Star Wars films ("Robot Chicken: Star Wars", "Episode II", and "III"). The success of the specials led to the development animated parody series Star Wars Detours.[15]
• Family Guy has also produced three Star Wars specials titled "Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" and "It's a Trap!".
• Phineas and Ferb parody of Star Wars ("Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars", also titled "Episode IVa: May the Ferb Be with You") aired in mid-2014, soon after Disney's acquisition of the franchise.[16]
• Rick and Morty parody of Star Wars ("Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri") is the tenth and final episode of the fourth season, aired on May 31, 2020.[17]

The Star Wars fandom is the community of fans of the Star Wars film series and other related media.

The franchise has gained a notable presence on the internet thanks to the advance of social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. On top of the many fan edits the franchise has inspired[18][19] like Harmy's Despecialized Edition, there have been various memes related to specific moments in the movies themselves, like a mistranslated Chinese bootleg of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith[20][21][22] and 'TR-8R' from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[23][24]

Conversely, the polarizing reception to Star Wars: The Last Jedi led to instances of review bombing on review aggregation websites.[25][26] The cast and crew of The Last Jedi would also receive backlash and be bombarded with hate speech.[27][28]

The Star Wars saga has inspired many fans to create their own non-canon material set in the Star Wars galaxy. In recent years, this has ranged from writing fan-fiction to creating fan films. In 2002, Lucasfilm sponsored the first annual Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards, officially recognizing filmmakers and the genre. Because of concerns over potential copyright and trademark issues, however, the contest was initially open only to parodies, mockumentaries, and documentaries. Fan-fiction films set in the Star Wars universe were originally ineligible, but in 2007 Lucasfilm changed the submission standards to allow in-universe fiction entries.[29] Lucasfilm, for the most part, has allowed but not endorsed the creation of these derivative fan-fiction works, so long as no such work attempts to make a profit from or tarnish the Star Wars franchise in any way.[30]

While many fan films have used elements from the licensed Expanded Universe to tell their story, they are not considered an official part of the Star Wars canon. However, the lead character from the Pink Five series was incorporated into Timothy Zahn's 2007 novel Allegiance, marking the first time a fan-created Star Wars character has ever crossed into the official canon.[31] Although since 2014, the novel became re-branded as Legends, the character has yet to reappear into the revised canon.

• Internet

• Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager

• Star Wars Kid

• Chewbacca Mask Lady

• Cosplay:

• 501st Legion

• Rebel Legion

• "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded two parodies: "Yoda", a parody of "Lola" by The Kinks; and "The Saga Begins", a parody of Don McLean's song "American Pie" that retells the events of The Phantom Menace from Obi-Wan Kenobi's perspective.[32]
• Dan Amrich recorded Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans, an adaptation of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which retells the story of the original Star Wars film.[33][34][35]
• Natalie's Rap 2.0

Expedition 45 Return of the Jedi crew poster

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum had an exhibition called "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth". It was an exhibition of original production models, props, costumes, and characters from the first three Star Wars films.[36][37] In October 2007, NASA launched a Space Shuttle carrying an original lightsaber into orbit. The prop handle had been used as Luke Skywalker's lightsaber in Return of the Jedi. After spending two weeks in orbit, it was brought back to Earth on November 7, 2007, to be returned to its owner, George Lucas.[38]

The first successfully launched space-rocket, to be sent by the private spaceflight company SpaceX, was named the Falcon 1. Elon Musk used the word "falcon" within the name of the space-rocket, as a reference to the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The Falcon 1's success led to the fabrication of updated versions of the space rocket, in what became known as the Falcon family of space-rockets. The Falcon 1 has since been retired, in favor of the Falcon 9.[39]

Characters and other fictional elements from Star Wars have inspired several scientific names of organisms.

Examples include:

• Midichloria, a genus of bacteria named after the fictional micro-organisms midichlorians associated with the Force
• Yoda purpurata, a species of hermaphroditic acorn worm
• Agathidium vaderi a species of beetle
• Aptostichus sarlacc, a trapdoor spider named for the sarlacc, the pit-dwelling creature on Tatooine.[40]
• Han solo, a species of trilobite from China [lower-alpha 1]
• Albunione yoda, an isopod
• Darthvaderum, an oribatid mite genus
• Polemistus chewbacca and Polemistus vaderi, species of wasps
• Stormtropis, a genus of spiders named after the stormtroopers
• Wockia chewbacca, a species of moth
• Peckoltia greedoi, a catfish named after Greedo
• Xenokeryx amidalae, an extinct hoofed mammal named after Queen Amidala
• Ricinus vaderi, a species of chewing lice

When Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a system of lasers and missiles meant to intercept incoming ICBMs, the plan was quickly labeled "Star Wars", implying that it was science fiction and linking it to Reagan's acting career. According to Frances FitzGerald, Reagan was annoyed by this, but Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle told colleagues that he "thought the name was not so bad."; "'Why not?' he said. 'It's a good movie. Besides, the good guys won.'"[43] This gained further resonance when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".

In television commercials, public interest group critics of the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative program deridingly referred to the orbital missile defense project as "Star Wars". Lucasfilm originally sued to try to enjoin this usage of its trademark, and lost.[44] Explaining its decision, the court said,

When politicians, newspapers, and the public generally use the phrase star wars for their convenience, in parody or descriptively to further a communication of their views on SDI, plaintiff has no rights as owner of the mark to prevent this use of STAR WARS. ... Since Jonathan Swift's time, creators of fictional worlds have seen their vocabulary for fantasy appropriated to describe reality. Trademark laws regulate unfair competition, not the parallel development of new dictionary meanings in the everyday give and take of human discourse.[44]

When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 general election held on May 3, the Tories took out a newspaper ad that read "May The Fourth Be With You Maggie. Congratulations."[45]

On May 4, 1995 during a defence debate[46] in the UK parliament, MP Harry Cohen related the Star Wars Day joke: "May the 4th be with you". Star Wars also made its mark in the 2001 census, when over 390,000 UK respondents entered their religion as Jedi.

On March 1, 2013, President Barack Obama spoke on the sequestration debate. He said that some people expect him to do a "Jedi mind meld" on the Republicans who refuse to deal.[47]

In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential elections the Internet Party of Ukraine tried to nominate a man named Darth Vader;[48][49] but his registration was refused because his real identity could not be verified.[50] A man named Darth Vader was a candidate at the 25 May 2014 Kiev mayoral election and the Odessa mayoral election of the same day for the same party.[51][52] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election the Internet Party let Darth Vader along other Star Wars characters such as Chewbacca, Padmé Amidala, and Yoda run for seats in the Ukrainian parliament.[53] In the election the party failed to clear the 5% election threshold (it got 0.36% of the votes) and also did not win a constituency seat and thus no parliamentary seats.[54][55][56]

In 2015, as a part of the decommunization process in Ukraine, a statue of a Vladimir Lenin was modified into a monument to Darth Vader at the territory of Pressmash plant in Odessa.[57][58]

There is a real religion based on Star Wars. Their followers follow a modified version of the Jedi Code, and they believe in the concept of The Force as an energy field of all living things, which "surrounds us... penetrates us" and "binds the galaxy together", as is depicted within Star Wars movies, although without the fictional elements such as telekinesis.[59][60] Many citizens around the world answer list their religion as Jedi during their countries respective Census, among them Australia and New Zealand getting high percentages.[61][62] A petition in Turkey to build a Jedi Temple within a University, also got international media attention.[63]