A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment What happened to the Galactic Empire in the Sequel trilogy? In   Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy ( The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi,  and  The Rise of Skywalker,  the Galactic Empire created by Supreme Chancellor/Emperor Sheev Palpatine 19 years before the events of  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  is no more. With the destruction of the second Death Star, the death (presumed, anyway) of Emperor Palpatine, the death (confirmed) of his fearsome agent Darth Vader, and thousands of Imperial senior commanders and field-grade officers at the Battle of Endor and elsewhere, the old Empire shattered and was defeated after several years by the New Republic. The Galactic Civil War ended when the remnants of Palpatine’s government led by Grand Vizier Mas Ameddas signed the Galactic Concordance five years after the Battle of Endor. However, a core of Imperial fanatics, including Brendol Hux, his young...

Do you think the Empire in  Star Wars  was based off of the Nazis? The Galactic Empire’s resemblance to Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich is neither superficial nor coincidental. It is intentional. When George Lucas made the original  Star Wars  film in the late 1970s, he and his design team (which included illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, costume designer John Mollo, and storyboard artist/model designer Joe Johnston) looked at 20th Century history and modern totalitarian states for design ideas that would fit the ethos of a ruthless and evil dictatorship in a galaxy far, far away. Nazi Germany was the most obvious font of inspiration for the designers; the Second World War, after all, had occurred only one generation earlier and Nazi uniforms, German army gear and weaponry, and other regalia still evoked the evil tyranny that was the Third Reich. It’s no accident that this Imperial soldier is called a “stormtrooper.” That’s what the brown-shirted rowdies of the Na...