In October 2012, the Walt Disney Company paid more than $4 billion to acquire Lucasfilms, the film and production company responsible for Howard the Duck. But Disney, despite its history and success with duck characters, wasn't after Howard; in buying Lucasfilms, it also bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise. Soon after the purchase, Disney announced a new Star Wars film was in the works and would be released in 2015, nearly four decades after the first film hit big screens around the world and changed popular culture forever. The continued relevance of Star Wars owes much to the passion of its fans. For millions of people around the world, the films are more than diversions - they are a way of life. Through costumed role-playing, incessant quoting, Yoda-like grammatical inversions and scholarly debates about the Force, fans keep the films alive in a variety of ways, and in so doing add to the saga's cultural relevance.

The first book to address the films holistically and from a variety of cultural perspectives, Fan Phenomena: Star Wars explores numerous aspects of Star Wars fandom, from its characters to its philosophy. As one contributor notes, 'The saga that George Lucas created affects our lives almost daily, whether we ourselves are fans of the saga or not'. Anyone who is struggling to forget Jar Jar Binks can certainly agree to that.

Academically informed but written for a general audience, this book will appeal to every fan and critic of the films. That is, all of us.

Mika Elovaara is an author, teacher, coach, former professional athlete and a life-long fan of Star Wars.

Introduction - Mike Elovaara

Star Wars as a Character-Oriented Franchise - Jason Scott

Fashion from a Galaxy Far, Far Away - Jonathan Derosa

Fans, Fics & Films... 'Thank the Maker(s)!' - Marc Joly-Corcoran and Sarah Ludlow

Immersive and Interactive Adaptations and Extensions of Star Wars - Jason Scott

From Bikinis to Blasters: The Role of Gender in the Star Wars Community - Erika Travis

Jediism as a Religion? The Force as Old/New Religious Philosophy - Zachary Ingle

Greater then the Sum of Its Parts: The Singular Emergent Language of the Star Wars Universe - Kris Jacobs

Star Wars Generations - A Saga for the Ages, for All Ages - Brendan Cook

The Marketing of the Force: Fans, Media and the Economics of Star Wars - Neil Matthiessen

The Influence of The Force - Jason Davis and Larry Pakowski