"Жұлдызды соғыстар: Радио драмалар сериясы"

Series of three radio dramas based on Star Wars films

A radio dramatization of the original Star Wars film trilogy was produced in 1981, 1983, and 1996. The first two radio series, based on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, were produced and broadcast by National Public Radio (NPR) as part of NPR Playhouse. A dramatization of Return of the Jedi was produced by most of the same team and it was also broadcast on NPR. The radio serials were made with the full cooperation of George Lucas, who, in exchange for a dollar each, sold the rights to KUSC FM, the public radio affiliate at his alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC). Lucas also permitted the use of original sound effects and music from the films.

The Star Wars radio dramas were authorized adaptations of Lucas's scripts, and they were originally considered canon. Commentators argued that while the radio dramas varied somewhat from the film scripts, they should be considered canon insofar as they did not directly contradict the films. However, in 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars. In 1994, Lucasfilm's continuity editor, Allan Kausch, stated that "'Gospel', or 'canon' as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelizations." In 2014 Lucasfilm announced that previous works which were set in the Expanded Universe (including comics, novels and videogames) were to be re branded as Star Wars Legends, and only the Skywalker saga and The Clone Wars film and television series were to be considered canon, in addition to new spin off works. The first radio drama relates the backstory which immediately precedes the narrative of the original 1977 film, and this backstory overlaps with the Legends novels Jedi Dawn, Rebel Dawn and the 2016 film Rogue One. Commentators have since noted that the canon story which is introduced in Rogue One conflicts with episode 2 of the radio drama, "Points of Origin". In the radio drama, the Death Star plans are obtained after a Rebel attack on an Imperial convoy; Rebel agents then transmit the Death Star plans from the planet Toprawa to the Tantive IV. In Rogue One, the plans are transmitted from Scarif, where they were archived, to Admiral Raddus' flagship, the Profundity. The plans are then taken on board the docked Tantive IV, which launches before Darth Vader can recapture them. In 2015 another adaptation of A New Hope was published, The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy. The author, Alexandra Bracken, stated that she was reading the Expanded Universe to try to "sneak elements in" to the canon and adapted material from the radio drama.

Several actors reprised their roles in the film. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels returned to reprise their roles as Luke Skywalker and C 3PO, respectively. The supporting cast included James Blendick, Clyde Burton, Bruce French, David Alan Grier, Jerry Hardin, John Harkins, Scott Jacoby, Meshach Taylor, Marc Vahanian, John Welsh, and Kent Williams. Ken Hiller provides the narration.

Billy Dee Williams reprised Lando Calrissian, and John Lithgow played Yoda at the same time Madden was directing Lithgow in the play Beyond Therapy. Hamill and Daniels returned to voice Skywalker and C 3PO. The supporting cast again included David Alan Grier and also included Sam McMurray, Steven Markle, Stephen D. Newman, John Pielmeier, Geoffrey Pierson, Gary Tacon, and Jerry Zaks. Ken Hiller provides the narration.

The adaptation used many of the original radio cast, though Joshua Fardon took over as Luke and Arye Gross replaced Billy Dee Williams as Lando.

In July 1981, the Star Wars radio adaptation was broadcast by BBC Radio 1.