The Transmedia Franchise of Star Wars TV

While previous work on the Star Wars universe charts the Campbellian mythic arcs, political representations, and fan reactions associated with the films, this volume takes a transmedial approach to the material, recognizing that Star Wars TV projects interact with and relate to other Star Wars texts. The chapters in this volume take as a basic premise that the televisual entrants into the Star Wars transmedia storyworld are both important texts in the history of popular culture and also key to understanding how the Star Wars franchise—and, thus, industry-wide transmedia storytelling strategies—developed. The book expands previous work to consider television studies and sharp cultural criticism together in an effort to bring long-running popular series, long-ignored texts, and even toy commercials to bear on the franchise’s complex history.
Dominic J. Nardi is a political scientist with a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He has published articles about political themes in speculative fiction, including an award-winning article about J.R.R. Tolkien’s views on democracy in Mythlore and a chapter about ethnicity in Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy. 

 Derek R. Sweet, a Professor of Communication Studies at Luther College, explores the intersection of rhetoric, popular culture, and politics. His book, Star Wars in the Public Square: The Clone Wars as Public Dialogue, positions the animated series as an important cultural voice in ongoing deliberations regarding U.S. post-9/11 war efforts.