The next Star Wars film, which opens on December 15, will be a prequel to the first one, made in 1977. Just how much Star Wars can the world stomach? And is looking backwards to move forwards such a good idea?
A growing vocal minority blame poor computer generated images for ‘ruining’ the movies. But digital effects can co-exist with real sets and stunts - and films have always been fake.
We’re on the cusp of being able to consistently launch and land rockets, greatly reducing the cost of space travel. But how long before there’s a Millennium Falcon in every garage?
The bad guys in Star Wars: The Force Awakens might be able to destroy multiple planets at once with their Starkiller Base but it’s far from efficient warfare.
Return of the Jedi saw Emperor Palpatine’s regime brought crashing down – but the hard peace-building work to save the galaxy from a relapse was clearly never done.
It was by no means a sure thing that Star Wars’ innovative beginning endured until the modern day. Here’s the story of its various scrapes with the wrecking ball.
Four decades later, I find myself surveying 13 billion years of cosmic history and mapping events that really did happen a long time ago in galaxies far, far away.