How 1980's The Empire Strikes Back set Star Wars on the way to becoming phenom it is today
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It is hard to imagine a world in which Star Wars is not the galaxy-conquering behemoth we know today.
As of 2025, George Lucas's sci-fi franchise includes nine films and three movie spin-offs, with more streaming and animated series being added all the time.
Of course, none of this would have happened without the 1977 original, a pitch-perfect popcorn odyssey buoyed by John Williams' triumphant music and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)'s dazzling special effects.
But it was the 1980 sequel, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, which is 45 this month, that turned this stand-alone success into an enduring pop-culture phenomenon. And it almost ended in disaster.
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