Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling

Star Warshas reached more than three generations of casual and hardcore fans alike, and as a result many of the producers of franchisedStar Warstexts (films, television, comics, novels, games, and more) over the past four decades have been fans-turned-creators. Yet despite its dominant cultural and industrial positions,Star Warshas rarely been the topic of sustained critical work. Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytellingoffers a corrective to this oversight by curating essays from a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars in order to bringStar Warsand its transmedia narratives more fully into the fold of media and cultural studies. The collection placesStar Warsat the center of those studies' projects by examiningvideo games, novels and novelizations, comics, advertising practices, television shows, franchising models, aesthetic and economic decisions, fandom and cultural responses, and other aspects ofStar Warsand its world-building in their multiple contexts of production, distribution, and reception. In emphasizing thatStar Warsis both a media franchise and a transmedia storyworld,Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytellingdemonstrates the ways in which transmedia storytelling and the industrial logic of media franchising have developed in concert over the past four decades, as multinational corporations have become the central means for subsidizing, profiting from, and selling modes of immersive storyworlds to global audiences. By taking this dual approach, the book focuses on the interconnected nature of corporate production, fan consumption, and transmedia world-building. As such, this collection grapples with the historical, cultural, aesthetic, and political-economic implications of the relationship between media franchising and transmedia storytelling as they are seen at work in the world's most profitable transmedia franchise.