George Lucas

From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Solo,’ what are the best and worst parts of the saga from the galaxy far, far away? We ranked them all.

You know that James Earl Jones provided the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. But did you know when Star Wars was first released in 1977, Jones was not listed in the closing credits? Over the years he’s claimed that the reason for the omission was his belief that he hadn’t done enough work to deserve billing, and later confessed that he worried that if he was credited he would be typecast as a bad guy for the rest of his career. Jones’ name was added to the credits of the film when it was released in 1997 in its “Special Edition.” That’s just one of the Star Wars Special Edition facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

In the tradition of ScreenCrush series like You Think You Know Movies and You Think You Know TV comes a new YouTube series: Top Five! Every two weeks (or so; we’ve got a lot of other stuff going on), ScreenCrush editor and critic Matt Singer will count down a particular topic from the world of movies (and probably write these introductory posts in the third person).

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow wears all manner of sci-fi influences on its sleeve, not the least of which has been Star Wars. Now, the Legends’ trips through history will finally extend to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away as well, spotlighting the origin of Star Wars itself with a young George Lucas next month.

We’ve had plenty of time to process the demise and unfinished material of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, particularly as Star Wars Rebels filled the gap under the new Disney umbrella. That said, at least some of the late Clone Wars material was eyed for a spinoff George Lucas declined, according to Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo.

Ralph McQuarrie is one of people whose name may not be known to the public at large, but whose imagination gave rise to some of the most indelible, incredible imagery in all pop culture. He was a designer, a concept artist, and a creator who could take fantastic ideas and give them form, serving an essential role in the making of classic films and TV shows. Born on this day in 1929, McQuarrie designed the spaceships seen in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T., he conceived the look of the original Battlestar Galactica, he was responsible for a central image in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, he production designed Cocoon, and he worked as visual consultant for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. But inarguably, his major achievement was defining the look of the Star Wars universe.

According to Facebook comments by artist J. Scott Campbell, Marvel and its parent company Disney are phasing out the "Slave Leia" costume from their merchandising and publications. If the reports are true, the move suggests that Disney is stepping away with the most degrading canon representation of one of Star Wars' few female characters in an effort to broaden the appeal of the franchise to include more women and girls. The metal bikini and elf shoes could soon be a thing of the past. And to this I say: it's about frickin' time.

It's been a good year for fans of the original Star Wars trilogy and Dark Horse comics. There's the new Star Wars series by Brian Wood and Carlos D'Anda that takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, (the first issue of which CA's own Dylan Todd reviewed here), and now J...

Director George Lucas may have largely turned over the fate of his Star Wars franchise to other hands following the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney in October, but fans still have plenty of reason to be excited by his projects. One of his latest projects since announcing he'd be using some $4...

Cosplay: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson didn't need any stinkin' foam padding for his Hulk costume this Halloween. He did it Ferrigno style. Industry: Hurricane Sandy delayed some of Maryland-based Diamond Comic Distributors' shipments to the Northeast this week and messed with email communication, but it looks like next week's shipments should be OK...