New Series STAR WARS AnimationStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy's final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released, again released at three-year intervals, with the final film released on May 19, 2005. As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totalled approximately $4.3 billion, making it the third-highest-grossing film series, behind only the James Bond and Harry Potter films. The Star Wars film series has spawned other media including books, television series, video games, and comic books. These supplements to the film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series' fictional universe. These media kept the franchise going in the interim between the film trilogies. In 2008, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released to theaters as the first ever worldwide theatrical Star Wars film outside of the main trilogies. It was the franchise's first animated film, and was intended as an introduction to the Expanded Universe series of the same name, a 3D CGI animated series based on a previous 2D animated series of a similar name. Animated series Following the success of the Star Wars films and their subsequent merchandising, several animated television series have been created for the younger fan base: * Star Wars: Droids, also known as Droids, which premiered in September 1985, focused on the travels of R2-D2 and C-3P0 as they shift through various different owners/masters, and vaguely fills in the gaps between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. * Star Wars: Ewoks and colloquially as The Ewoks, was simultaneously released in September 1985 and focused on the adventures of Wicket and various other recognizable Ewok characters from the original trilogy in the years leading up to Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. * Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon micro-series created by Genndy Tartakovsky, which aired on Cartoon Network from November 2003 to March 2005. * Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series continuation of the animated movie of the same name, which has been airing on Cartoon Network since October 2008.