Special Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Video Looks Back At The Legacy Of The Franchise

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We are now less than a month away from the release of J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - which, as many have pointed out, is the final chapter of an incredible cinematic legacy. The Skywalker Saga launched all the way back in 1977, and soon we will be witnessing the conclusion of three separate trilogies representing three different eras in the franchise. The movies have influenced pop culture like few others in history, and now a new featurette has launched celebrating that incredible breadth.

With the American Music Awards airing tonight, Lucasfilm decided to do a bit of celebrating by releasing a very special video that examines the incredible impact of the Star Wars franchise. Take a look at it below!

Star Wars has meant a lot of things to a lot of people in its 40 years of existence, and much of that is on display in this video (and the only reason I don't say "all" is because that would be truly impossible). From Mel Brooks parody, to presidential speeches, there are few parts of every day life that Star Wars hasn't in someway influenced, and it's hard to travel any considerable distance in the civilized world without seeing the extent of its reach.

It all started out very simply, with the story of an ordinary farm boy who has dreams of becoming a hero and defeating evil, and over the years has blossomed into a world of special storytelling, with countless comics, books, and video games all part of the pop culture sphere alongside 10 live-action blockbusters and multiple television shows.

And while Star Wars isn't going away any time soon, with a new feature film already planned for 2022, and multiple other projects in the works, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker should still be a special event. The Skywalker Saga is an arc unto itself in the vast universe of the franchise, as audiences have spent decades falling in love with the particular mystique and mythos of the tale of Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Ben a.k.a. Kylo Ren. While stories will continue being told set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, cinema will never see anything like it ever again.

It feels like it's taken forever to get to this point, as the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens seems like it was crazy long ago at this point, but now audiences worldwide are just weeks away from seeing how director J.J. Abrams and his crew and cast wrap up this particular big screen adventure. Starring an epic ensemble that includes Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker will be playing in theaters everywhere starting on December 20th, and you'll definitely want to stay tuned to CinemaBlend between now and then, because we have a lot of special content planned for you between now and then!

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.