Star Wars has reached more than three generations of casual and hardcore fans alike, and as a result many of the producers of franchised Star Wars texts (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 Wars has rarely been the topic of sustained critical work. Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling offers a corrective to this oversight by curating essays from a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars in order to bring Star Wars and its transmedia narratives more fully into the fold of media and cultural studies. The collection places Star Wars at the center of those studies' projects by examining video games, novels and novelizations, comics, advertising practices, television shows, franchising models, aesthetic and economic decisions, fandom and cultural responses, and other aspects of Star Wars and its world-building in their multiple contexts of production, distribution, and reception. In emphasizing that Star Wars is both a media franchise and a transmedia storyworld, Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling demonstrates 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.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-315) and index.

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- "I Am Fluent in over Six Million Forms of Communication" -- Introduction: "What Is This Strange World We've Come to?" -- Foreword: "I Have a Bad Feeling About This" / Jenkins, Henry / Hassler-Forest, Dan -- Part I "First Steps Into A Larger World": Establishing the Star Wars Storyworld -- 1. "Thank the Maker!" / Lomax, Tara -- 2. Han Leia Shot First / Webster, Jeremy W. -- 3. From Sequel to Quasi-Novelization / Freeman, Matthew -- 4. Another Canon, Another Time / Parys, Thomas Van -- 5. Franchising Empire / Hall, Stefan -- 6. "You must feel the Force around you!" / Morton, Drew -- Part II "Never Tell Me the Odds!": Expanding the Star Wars Universe -- 7. Transmedia Character Building / Geraghty, Lincoln -- 8. The Digitizing Force of Decipher's Star Wars Customizable Card Game / Lee, Jonathan Rey -- 9. Publishing the New Jedi Order / Guynes, Sean -- 10. How Star Wars Became Museological / Herrera, Beatriz Bartolomâe / Keidl, Philipp Dominik -- 11. Adapting the Death Star into LEGO / Wolf, Mark J.P. -- 12. Invoking the Holy Trilogy / Butler, Andrew M. -- 13. Chasing Wild Space / Mejeur, Cody -- Part III "More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine": Consolidating the Star Wars Franchise -- 14. From Transmedia Storytelling to Transmedia Experience / Hills, Matt -- 15. Space Bitches, Witches, and Kick-Ass Princesses / Bruin-Molâe, Megen de -- 16. Some People Call Him a Space Cowboy / Sweet, Derek R. -- 17. The Kiss Goodnight from a Galaxy Far, Far Away / Urbanski, Heather -- 18. Formatting Nostalgia / Whitney, Allison -- 19. Fandom Edits / Canavan, Gerry -- Afterword: "You'll Find I'm Full of Surprises" / Brooker, Will / Hassler-Forest, Dan -- Bibliography -- About the Contributors -- Index.

Undetermined.

Master record variable field(s) change: 072