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Star Wars

The 'Star Wars' franchise lives on

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published May 17, 2005

Think you've seen the last of Luke and Leia? Think again.

Revenge of the Sith may be the final film in the Star Wars franchise, but there's plenty to suggest the franchise won't end there. In fact, you're virtually guaranteed to see stormtroopers in toy stores, hobby shops and even on television for years to come.

Here's a look at some of the ways George Lucas will maintain a death grip on pop culture in the future:

* Toymaker Hasbro has already signed a deal to keep producing Star Wars toys through 2018, a good 41 years after Star Wars ' premiere.

* In April, Lucas announced to a massive gathering at a Star Wars convention that he'd be developing a 3-D animated series taking off on the Cartoon Network's Star Wars: Clone Wars , and that a live-action television show was in the works. "We're probably not going to start that for about a year," Lucas said.

* The popular series of Star Wars novels isn't going anywhere any time soon. Publisher Del Ray Books, a Random House imprint, boasts that "the Star Wars adventure doesn't end with Revenge of the Sith !" Hundreds of books and novels about the fictional universe beyond the films are already out there.

* Fans will not give up the hope that Lucas will bring the series back for episodes VII, VIII and IX. And they keep finding fuel for their fiery passion. In the past, Lucas himself has alluded to the idea of a "trilogy of trilogies." Last fall, during a media tour for the original trilogy's release on DVD, Mark Hamill talked about agreeing, years ago, to appear in episode IX, should it ever be made. Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca, once told the British film mag Hotdog that his contract required him to appear in episodes VII, VIII and IX. Lucas may say he's done, but as long as there's an Internet, rumors - both outlandish and conceivable - will fly.

* Lucas confessed to Wired magazine in 1997 that he buried a time capsule at his Skywalker Ranch, so the Force will live on long after he dies. "There are a lot of artifacts from Star Wars , and from the company," he told Wired. "It's for some archaeologist 2,000 years from now to discover. ... When we are all gone and the microbes have taken over, and they begin to speak and think and do things that we have done, they will dig it up some day and say, "Look, humans were here."'

-- JAY CRIDLIN, Times staff writer

[Last modified May 17, 2005, 09:14:59]