When was the title Star Wars devised? It’s earlier than you might think

The title Star Wars as it appears in the film

Apart from its virtues as a film, Star Wars had one of the best titles ever to grace a movie.  But it could just as easily have been called The Adventures of Luke Starkiller. 

Today, we’re looking at the origins of the title Star Wars – and, at the same time, the meeting at Cannes that set George Lucas’s idea on the way to becoming reality.

Why the Rogue One re-shoots? Star Wars always was a war movie.

The X-wings attack, World War II-style, in Star Wars

It has been reported that Disney executives, who ordered re-shoots on the forthcoming Rogue One: a Star Wars Story, didn’t like the rough cut of the film because it "had the feel of a war movie”. 

Episode Nothing looks at how odd that quote is, in view of the fact that war movies are a major influence on the original film.

One of our dragons is missing: How Disney’s missing dinosaur appeared in Star Wars

The skeleton in Star Wars that was re-used
from One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

In the spring of 1976, my birthday treat was to be taken to the cinema with some friends. The film, like almost all of those I had seen at the cinema up to then, was from Disney. It was called One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. Not only was it the kind of movie that pretty much disappeared after Star Wars, but you can actually see the symbolic death of the Disney family comedy in a memorable moment from Star Wars itself. 

Book review: How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor

The cover of How Star Wars Conquered
the Universe by Chris Taylor, published by Head of Zeus

You would need a wookie’s lifespan to read every book published so far about Star Wars – and most of that time would be spent on spin-off novels or the sumptuously illustrated official guides to the films.

But Chris Taylor's book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe is something different: an intelligent, entertaining unauthorised account of the influence Star Wars has had on the world – and a record of the highs and lows experienced by Star Wars fans over the past four decades.