Star Wars
Thanks for joining us!
This episode was written by Kara and voiced by Kara and T.
Episode art was drawn by Jean.
It was originally released in June 2025.
— Enjoy these books about Star Wars —
Click on each photo for a link to the book on our Bookshop.org account
— Favorite Star Wars toys —
Perhaps you’ve heard of the merch for this little, billion-dollar franchise?
Grogu Plush celebrates one of the best new additions to the Star Wars universe from Mandalorian, Grogu (who we and everyone else call “Baby Yoda”.
There are so many fun Star Wars Legos - we love how this Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi Starfighter has a person, droid, creature, lightsaber, and plane. Critical staples of the universe.
Let’s be honest, most Star Wars-loving kids dream about having a lightsaber. There are so many cool colors/characters’ sabers available, including this Mace Windu Lightsaber.
— Learn more about Industrial Light and Magic —
— Our family has been known to Star Wars —
Immersing ourselves in the Star Wars Universe
The Star Wars land at Disneyland is shockingly real feeling
— Star Wars Episode Summary —
Original Star Wars concept and main characters —
When kids talk about Star Wars, they especially like to talk about a few things… Lightsabers. The Jedi. Darth Vader. Stormtroopers. Luke. Leia. Han Solo. Chewbacca.
There’s a whole universe for Star Wars – that means there are many stories and lands and characters that have been created, and enjoyed by millions of people. It’s not about the real world we live in, it’s a made up, or fictional, world.
And it all started from the first movie, which was called Star Wars when it came out almost 50 years ago! The very beginning of Star Wars starts off by saying: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” Because a lot of this movie happens in space! There are lots of planets in their made up galaxy, and all different kinds of people and creatures on those planets. And they get from planet to planet in spaceships.
This galaxy is ruled by some bad guys. They’re called The Galactic Empire. They want to control everything and everyone. One of the leaders of the Empire is Darth Vader, he’s a mean dude. He wears an all black outfit, including a black cape and black helmet that covers up his face - we have no idea what he really looks like! He also has a distinct voice. It’s low and rumbling and you can hear his breathing really loud.
The soldiers for the Empire are called storm troopers. They dress all in white armor, and they also wear helmets to cover their face! They do all of the fighting for the Empire, and use blasters, but they have a hard time hitting anything!
And then there’s a group trying to fight back against the Empire, to stop them from ruling. They’re the Rebel Alliance! They have to hide out, and live in secret. When Star Wars starts, Princess Leia, who is a Rebel leader, has been captured during a battle. She was given secret plans to a space station with a huge weapon on it: The Death Star. It has enough power to destroy a planet.
Before Leia can get back to the Rebel Alliance, her spaceship is captured by Darth Vader. Knowing that he wants to get those plans back, she sneaks them off the ship, along with a plea for help. She says: “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi - you’re my only hope!”
More Star Wars, including droids and the ways of the Jedi —
Princess Leia sends the message asking for help through a Droid! In the Star Wars world, there are machines called droids, and people can talk to them! They’re not humans, they’re robots! Droids are often programmed to follow orders, but they also have minds of their own.
Leia has two droid friends that manage to escape when she’s captured – R2D2 and C3PO. R2D2 looks like a big can with lights and buttons, and rolls along the ground. C3PO is taller, and looks like a gold human robot.
Droids have their own language, but some of them, like C3PO can speak English. R2D2 can’t, he speaks by going beep boop beep… T: makes R2D2 sounds… but C3PO understands him, and we understand C3PO!
The two droids escape from Leia’s spaceship in a pod and crash on a planet, where they meet a teenager named Luke Skywalker! Luke lives on a farm with his aunt and uncle, who tell him that his parents died a long time ago. His life is kind of quiet, and he wishes for more adventure, and to be able to fly a spaceship! While cleaning R2D2, he accidentally turns on the hidden message from Princess Leia, asking for help from Obi Wan Kenobi. Luke thinks his quiet neighbor is just a regular guy, but actually, HE is the Obi Wan Kenobi who Leia is reaching out to! And he used to be a Jedi Knight!
The Jedi were a group of peacekeepers, who were around in a time before the evil Galactic Empire came into power! When there were many Jedi, they had a school where grownup Jedi masters would train younger kids. The Jedi understand and use a mystical energy called The Force. The force is what connects all living things. And Jedi use the force to do things that no other people can - like moving something across a room.
The Jedi use the Force for good. But the Force can also be used for evil. If someone only feels negative feelings, like anger, fear, and greed, then they use the Dark Side of the Force.
The Jedi also have lightsabers - which are energy swords. When they’re carried around, they’re look like a skinny piece of metal, around the size of a water bottle. But when turned on, a beam of light appears out of it, whooommm, and it’s a powerful weapon! It can cut through almost anything, and they can use it to deflect/bounce off blasters!
When the Empire took over, they thought they killed all of the Jedi. But! It turned out that Obi Wan Kenobi managed to escape and go into hiding. And eventually, Luke Skywalker finds out that HE can feel the force, and learn the ways of the Jedi!
In the message, Princess Leia asks Obi Wan to take the Death Star plans to the Rebels’ base on a different planet, so they can figure out how to destroy it. But before Obi Wan can leave, Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers attack – they’re looking for the droids with the plans!
Luke and Obi Wan need to escape with the droids! They get help from pilots on a spaceship called The Millenium Falcon! One pilot is Han Solo - he is a human and his copilot is a wookie, which is a tall, furry creature, named Chewbacca. Han can understand Chewbaca, but when we the audience cannot.
Chewbecca, or Chewy, as he’s called, is one of many creatures in the Star Wars world that aren’t people and aren’t machines. Han Solo and Chewbacca use the Millenium Falcon to help Luke, Obi Wan, R2D2 and C3PO escape.
And off they go on their adventures! What will happen to the plans? Will Darth Vader catch them? Do they rescue Leia? Will Luke become a Jedi? You’ll have to watch some day and find out!
George Lucas, science fiction, and making the movie —
All of these awesome things – lightsabers and Jedi and droids and special spaceships – came from someone’s imagination! A man named George Lucas.
George Lucas was born in California and as a kid, he was really into fast cars. He thought about trying to be a racecar driver, but after he got into an accident, he decided to capture his love of racing with a movie camera instead! He went to school to study movies and made friends with a bunch of people who were doing exciting, creative things with moviemaking. It can be fun to have friends who are into what you’re into, because you can inspire each other and do it together!
George Lucas was the writer of the Star Wars story, and the director of the movie. The director is in charge of the whole movie! And they work with many other people to figure out how the movie should look, who should act it in, what those people should wear, how the story should be told, and the sounds we hear.
And Star Wars was especially amazing to make, because it’s science fiction! “Fiction” is a word for something is made up. It talks about people or places that have been imagined, they don’t exist in our real world.
Science fiction stories are also made up, and they imagine worlds that have really different science, technology or ways of living than we have. Science fiction can include things like space travel to other galaxies or time travel! And the Star Wars world definitely has technology that we don’t, like droids and lightsabers.
The Star Wars movie that George Lucas wrote is also a certain type of story called a quest. A quest happens when a character has to go on a mission, an adventure out into the world. Things may get in their way, but they’re determined to make something happen!
In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker goes on a quest, leaving his home planet and venturing into the galaxy. As part of that story, George Lucas created all of these planets and machines and creatures that don’t really exist – and then he and his team had to figure out how to make them seem like they do exist! It may sound simple, but it’s not easy to do! Imagine how hard you work when you make a costume for a play, or make a drawing of a make-believe land. It’s like that, but sooo much bigger!
They also needed something called special effects. Special effects are when you use tiny models and sets and technology to create things that look real in a movie.
In fact, George Lucas’s imagination was so incredible, that he created a whole NEW company to be able to make the things he imagined in his mind. He was able to hire people who were the best at their craft to be part of his company, ILM - Industrial Light and Magic - and it was a big deal, it changed the way movies were made! And they still work on movies today – 2025 is the 50 year anniversary of when the company was first created.
First movie opening, Episodes V and VI, and other Star Wars stories —
So, after years of hard work, of imagining worlds, creating characters like Luke, Leia, Obi Wan, Han Solo, Chewy, R2D2, C3PO, Darth Vader and more… of making the movie with the actors and the film crew and the special effects creators, it was time for the Star Wars movie to be seen by the world.
When Star Wars came out, in 1977, it was only in movie theaters. You had to go to the movie theater - a building with a whole bunch of seats and a big screen - to watch it. You couldn’t see it at home on your own TV.
No one really knew what the audience – the people going to the theater to watch the movie – were going to think about it! It was so different from other movies that had been made before it. It was a huuuuge hit! A mega hit! People were obsessed with it! They went to see it, told their friends about it, and then went back to see it again!
From the very start of the movie, people were amazed. The special effects, the music and the action all together made the audience immediately excited about the story.
Because it was such a huge hit, George Lucas was able to make other Star Wars movies! They actually ended up calling that first Star Wars movie: Star Wars Episode Four, A New Hope. The next movie, which told more about the story including Luke, Leia, Han and Darth Vader, is called Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. It came out three years later. And then three years after that was Episode Six: Return of the Jedi. A group of three movies is actually called a trilogy.
The first Star Wars trilogy has all the same characters and is one big story. For many years, these were the only Star Wars movies that existed. Sixteen years later, a new trilogy of films began. George Lucas waited that long because he wanted technology to be able to make the special effects look even more real!
Those three movies were actually called Episode 1, 2, and 3. They tell about what happened BEFORE Luke and Leia, Han Solo and the Rebel Alliance, and the Empire. What happened when there were many Jedi knights around. And how the evil Galactic Empire came to rule the galaxy.
And THEN, they made the last trilogy, Episodes 7, 8, and 9, which are about what happened after those first six movies. So then there was a trilogy of trilogies! Three sets of 3 movies! Together it’s called the “Skywalker Saga”.