Rebels and Empires

A rollicking, eye-opening history of the Star Wars franchise: a singular force in popular culture that changed the way Hollywood makes movies—and that is now imperiled by many of the industry forces it set in motion

From the premiere of the first film in 1977, the sheer commercial and artistic force of the Star Wars franchise not only captured the imaginations of billions of people—and trillions of dollars of revenue—but also rewrote the rules of the entertainment industry. Game-changing special effects, must-have collectibles, and the richness of George Lucas’s ever-expanding narrative gave rise to a new Hollywood model in which the boundary between screen and life collapsed. Star Wars wasn’t just a movie, after all: it was a language, a moral code, a way of life.

But as Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel explains, the hopeful, rebellious spirit that elevated the original Star Wars has given way to a cautionary tale of corporate mismanagement. After its fateful acquisition by Disney in 2011, Star Wars has become a victim of the Hollywood ecosystem it helped to create—one obsessed with strip-mining treasured stories for every last ounce of commercial value and converting them into endlessly malleable content. Drawing on scores of insider interviews and spanning fifty years of American culture and commerce, Rebels and Empires traces the franchise’s trajectory from counter-cultural emblem to a corporate holding plagued by internal chaos. Schwartzel brings to life the scrappy, anti-establishment ethos of Lucasfilm’s early days; the box-office frenzy that defined a Hollywood era; and the generations of fans whose lives have been shaped by this singular cultural force. 

Richly peopled and brimming with detail, Rebels and Empires is an epic history of American storytelling, obsession, and big business.