Just How Big Is The Star Wars Galaxy?

From its creation, Star Wars has always been a huge universe, overflowing with countless planets, species and cultures. With the growing number of films, TV shows and other media, this galaxy has continually expanded to introduce new creatures and worlds to audiences over the 45-year history of the franchise.

When looking at the first film, the galaxy appeared to be rich with alien life, with the cantina scene alone conveying just how many different creatures live in this universe. Although the planets we visited during A New Hope, namely Tatooine and Yavin IV - as well as Alderaan, but that was only for a few seconds before its untimely demise at the hands of the Death Star - were uniquely alien to the audience, the plot did little to create much of a feel of the scale of the galaxy they inhabited.

Whilst the 1977 picture barely scratched the surface of the scope of the Star Wars galaxy, later additions to the franchise did a much better job in fleshing out this aspect of the space opera, introducing weird and wonderful concepts that ultimately create an intricate world.

Since Star Wars takes place in our universe (as the opening of every film reminds audiences with "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...") this galaxy began to form after the Big Bang. As such, that means it's approximately 13 billion years old.

Just like ours, the Star Wars galaxy began its life when gravity pulled dust clouds together to form stars and planets, taking billions of years to do so. There is one major difference that defines Star Wars, though, with that being the Force. Although unknown as to how it came to be, the Force, as Obi-Wan Kenobi explains, is "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."

So, the Force holds the Star Wars cosmos together, and interacts with all life in the galaxy through Midi-chlorians, which are omnipresent micro-organisms found within all life. Eventually, the Force would be discovered over 30,000 years before the events of A New Hope, on the planet Tython by the Ashla and Bogan, who would learn to manipulate the Force for the light and dark side. Over the centuries, these groups would evolve into the Jedi, who serve the light side of the Force, and the Sith, who channel the dark side for personal gain.