Transmedia Worldbuilding in Star Wars

This thesis explores the use of transmedia worldbuilding techniques in the Star Wars (Lucas 1977) franchise. The aim of this paper is to investigate the way the narrative is changed by the expansion of an already existing story world, in this case, the Star Wars universe, to other media platforms. Firstly, the different academic approaches to the study of the transmedia phenomenon are discussed, with particular emphasis on Henry Jenkins’s research (2006a, 2006b, 2006c), whose works on transmedia narratives and fandom studies are used extensively throughout the paper. After that, three important aspects of the Star Wars universe are analyzed in their relation to transmedia storytelling: its characters, its political system, and its mythological background. For examining the effects of transmedia storytelling on characters, I analyzed the iconic villain, Darth Vader, whose story was elaborated in many different comic books, novels, and other media products beyond the film. Afterwards, I examined the different political systems of the Star Wars universe, and how transmedia sources changed the fans’ perception on them. Lastly, I inspected the way some transmedia sources further expanded the mythological background of the Star Wars franchise. By the end of the paper, I came to the conclusion that transmedia storytelling played a great part in shaping the Star Wars saga into a modern cult artifact as it made its world more complex, interactive, and realistic.