It took "Star Wars" creator George ...

It took "Star Wars" creator George Lucas six feature films to reveal the big-screen story of Darth Vader and his kin. moreover since the franchise began in 1977 Lucas has none told moviegoers what happened in the period between the films' trilogies.

Fans will get by heart answers next year when Lucasfilm releases a video game based upon that unexploited time in the "Star Wars" continuum. With razzle-dazzle consequences the still-untitled game will be the main platform for an accompanying line of action figures and vehicles from longtime "Star Wars" partner Hasbro to be released nearest year. A print and television advertising campaign will head the game launch, piggybacking onward the 30th anniversary of the franchise.

It's the kind of push usually reserv for a novel "Star Wars" film. Lucas, of course, has said he won't make any more of those. He does, however, plan to hold the movie's merchandising empire rolling -- a strategy that is contingent on generating new stories and blooming approaches to the iconic characters and their world.

in such a manner the game is set in the period between "Star Wars: Episode III - - vindicate by punishment of the Sith" and "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A fresh Hope," during the rise of the rebellion against Darth Vader and the Empire. Jim Ward, president of LucasArts, the video game unit of Lucasfilm, says players will discover novel pieces of the "Star Wars" story that help fill in the blanks. Before that, in December, Ubisoft will introduce "Star Wars Lethal Alliance," a game for PSP and Nintendo D also fix after "Episode III."

A $12 BILLION 'UNIVERSE'

Of course, the "Star Wars" universe has in extent been peppered with comics, novels and other ancillary fruits that riffed off Lucas' films. The stable of non-movie story lines became in this way big that it spawned its concede moniker: "expanded Star Wars universe," encompassing everything not directly mentioned in the movies. Lucasfilm says sales of "Star Wars" merchandise topped $12 billion since its inception in 1977 about three times the worldwide enclosed seat [i]or[/i] seats office for all six movies combined.

skilfuls say "Star Wars" goods have shown surprising power this year despite the absence of a recently made known movie -- even beating merchandise from summer flicks like as "Cars," "Superman Returns," and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." "Star Wars" is the top vender so far this year of action figures and the biggest merchandiser for boys' toys, according to market-research firm NPD clump of Port Washington, N.Y. Lucasfilm's head of licensing, Howard Roffman, says it is selling more than double its nearest movie-merchandise competitor this summer "Cars."

Nonetheless, the sales engine is starting to inactive Last month, Hasbro said sales of "Star Wars" merchandise dropp $848 million in its other quarter from the year-earlier period, when the last installment of the "Star Wars" franchise lay opened in theaters. Lucasfilm says it licenses 10000 effects but is trimming back the assortment in categories like apparel, backpacks and bed linens.

To hold interest going, the company is creating a children's television animated series put during the heyday of the Jedi world, between "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars: Episode III -- vindicate by punishment of the Sith." In 2008 the company will launch an accompanying toy line linked to the of recent origin characters of the series.

FIRST work A BEST SELLER

Then there's a nine-novel series that succeeds Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and other main characters 25 years after "Star Wars: Episode VI -- reply of the Jedi." The first work Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal, was released in May and exhausted about a month on the of recent origin York Times best-seller list.

Philip Wise, Webmaster of "Star Wars" fan sites theforce.net and rebelscum.com, says high-end outcomes like $579 replicas of Boba Fett's blaster, $99 minibusts of well-loved characters and flat $2,799 replicas of the Millennium Falcon are helping maintain fan interest. Wise says he is "shocked" at the number of consumer who continue to purchase "Star Wars" products in the absence of a of the present day film.

The coming events success of Lucasfilm's strategy will be pendent on hooking young fans like Layton Malmstrom. The 8-year-old became obsess with "Star Wars" after watching "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A of the present day Hope" a few years ago. His new birthday party in Phoenix featured a "Star Wars" theme.

"I just decided to find abroad what 'Star Wars' was like," Layton says. "I just lov it with equal reason much, and then I got each single episode."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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