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Darth Vader

George Lucas, Vader's creator

Various combinations of names for the character were built upon the phrase "Dark Water". Then Lucas "added lots of last names, Vaders and Wilsons and Smiths, and [he] just came up with the combination of Darth and Vader." After the release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Lucas said the name Vader was based upon the German/Dutch-language homophone vater or vader, meaning 'father', making the name representative of a "Dark Father".[10] Other words which may have inspired the name are "death" and "invader",[11] as well as the name of a high school upperclassman of Lucas's, Gary Vader.[12][13]

As no other character with the title "Darth" was introduced until the release of The Phantom Menace (1999),[b] some viewers interpreted it as the character's first name, in part because Obi-Wan Kenobi addresses him as "Darth" in the original film.[14] The moniker is bestowed upon Anakin in Revenge of the Sith (2005) upon his turn to the dark side of the Force.

Director Ken Annakin's films Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge influenced the original trilogy,[15] leading some to believe that Anakin was named after him. Lucas's publicist denied this following Annakin's death in 2009.[16] Anakin and Luke's original surname "Starkiller" remained in the script until a few months into filming Star Wars, when it was dropped due to what Lucas called "unpleasant connotations" with Charles Manson and replaced with "Skywalker".[17][c]

In other countries

In France his name was changed to "Dark Vador" since the first film. The names of other characters were changed too, but his is the only name that has been maintained even in the most recent films. The title "Dark" was used in place of "Darth" for the other Sith lords as well.[19]

In the Italian-language editions, Darth Vader is named "Dart Fener". In 2005, before the release of Episode III, an on-line survey asked Italian fans whether they would rather maintain the Italian name or switch it to the original: the first option won; however in 2015, when Episode VII had to be released, the Italian localisation decided to change the historical name to the English "Darth Vader".[20]

In Iceland his name is "Svarthöfði" (which means "blackhead").

Concept and writing

In the first draft of The Star Wars, tall, grim general "Darth Vader" was already close in line with his final depiction, and the protagonist Annikin Starkiller had a role similar to that of his son Luke's as the 16-year-old son of a respected warrior.[21] Originally, Lucas conceived of the Sith as a group that served the Emperor in the same way that the Schutzstaffel served Adolf Hitler. In developing the backstory for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas condensed this into one character in the form of Darth Vader.[22]

After the success of the original Star Wars (1977),[d] Lucas hired science-fiction author Leigh Brackett to write the sequel with him. They held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment. In the first draft that Brackett would write from this, Luke's father appears as a ghost to instruct Luke.[23] Lucas was disappointed with the script, but Brackett died of cancer before he could discuss it with her.[24] With no writer available, Lucas wrote the next draft himself. In this draft, dated April 1, 1978, he made use of a new plot twist: Vader claiming to be Luke's father.[25] According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the year-long struggles writing the first film.[26] Lucas has said that he knew Vader was Luke's father while writing the first film,[27] though the relationship is not evidenced before said draft of The Empire Strikes Back.[25][28]

The new plot element of Luke's parentage had drastic effects on the series. Author Michael Kaminski argues in The Secret History of Star Wars that it is unlikely that the plot point had ever seriously been considered or even conceived of before 1978, and that the first film was clearly operating under a storyline where Vader was a separate character from Luke's father.[29] After writing the second and third drafts in which the plot point was introduced, Lucas reviewed the new backstory he had created: Anakin had been Obi-Wan Kenobi's brilliant student and had a child named Luke, but was swayed to the dark side by Palpatine. Anakin battled Obi-Wan on the site of a volcano and was badly wounded, but was then reborn as Vader. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan hid Luke on Tatooine while the Galactic Republic became the tyrannical Galactic Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed the Jedi.[30] This change in character would provide a springboard to the "tragedy of Darth Vader" storyline that underlies the prequel trilogy.

After deciding to create the prequel trilogy, Lucas indicated that the story arc would be a tragic one depicting Anakin's fall to the dark side. He also saw that the prequels could form the beginning of one long story that started with Anakin's childhood and ended with his death. This was the final step towards turning the film series into a "saga".[31] For the first prequel, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Lucas made Anakin nine years old[32][e] to make the character's separation from his mother more poignant.[34] Movie trailers focused on Anakin and a one-sheet poster showing him casting Vader's shadow informed otherwise unknowing audiences of the character's eventual fate.[35] The movie ultimately achieved a primary goal of introducing audiences to Anakin,[31] as well as introducing the concept that he is the Chosen One of an ancient Jedi prophecy, destined to bring balance to the Force. Lucas states in an interview recorded around the time of the third prequel, Revenge of the Sith (2005), that "Anakin is the Chosen One. Even when Anakin turns into Darth Vader, he is still the Chosen One."[36]

Michael Kaminski offers evidence that issues in Anakin's fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make fundamental story changes, first revising the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith to have Palpatine kidnapped and his apprentice, Count Dooku, killed by Anakin in cold blood as the first act in the latter's turn towards the dark side.[37] After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas re-wrote Anakin's turn to the dark side; Anakin's fall from grace would now be motivated by a desire to save his wife, Padmé Amidala, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.[38]

During production of the animated The Clone Wars television series, Ahsoka Tano was developed to illustrate how Anakin develops from the brash, undisciplined Padawan apprentice in Attack of the Clones (2002) to the more reserved Jedi Knight in Revenge of the Sith.[39] Clone Wars supervising director and Star Wars Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni said that giving Anakin responsibility for a Padawan was meant to place the character in a role that forced him to become more cautious and responsible. It would also give him insight into his relationship with Obi-Wan and depict how their relationship matured. Ahsoka and Anakin's relationship was seen as an essential story arc spanning both the animated film and Clone Wars television series.[40] Filoni began thinking about the final confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader ever since he created the former;[41] different iterations had different endings,[42] including one in which Vader kills Ahsoka just as she slashes open his helmet to reveal his scarred face.[43] A similar scene is included in an episode of Rebels, in which Ahsoka slashes Vader's helmet open, and the Sith lord recognizes her.[44] According to Filoni, Ahsoka's presence in the series allows Vader to encounter the show's lead characters without the latter being "destroyed", as Ahsoka can "stand toe-to-toe" with her former master.[45]

Design

Ralph McQuarrie incorporated samurai armor into his conceptual designs for Vader's costume in 1975.

The original design of Darth Vader's costume did not originally include a helmet. The idea that Vader should wear a breathing apparatus was first proposed by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie during preproduction discussions for Star Wars with George Lucas in 1975. McQuarrie stated that Lucas's artistic direction was to portray a malevolent figure in a cape with samurai armor. "For Darth Vader, George just said he would like to have a very tall, dark fluttering figure that had a spooky feeling like it came in on the wind."[46] McQuarrie noted that the script indicated that Vader would travel between spaceships and needed to survive in the vacuum of space, and he proposed that Vader should wear some sort of space suit. Lucas agreed, and McQuarrie combined a full-face breathing mask with a samurai helmet, thus creating one of the most iconic designs of space fantasy cinema.[47][46] McQuarrie's 1975 production painting of Darth Vader engaged in a lightsaber duel with Deak Starkiller (a character prototype for Luke Skywalker) depicts Vader wearing black armor, a flowing cape and an elongated, skull-like mask and helmet. Its similarity to the final design of Vader's costume demonstrates that McQuarrie's earliest conception of Vader was so successful that very little needed to be changed for production.[48]

Darth Vader designers

Ralph McQuarrie

Brian Muir

Working from McQuarrie's designs, the costume designer John Mollo devised a costume that could be worn by an actor on-screen using a combination of clerical robes, a motorcycle suit, a German military helmet and a military gas mask.[49] The prop sculptor Brian Muir created the helmet and armour used in the film.[50]

The sound of the respirator function of Vader's mask was created by Ben Burtt using modified recordings of scuba breathing apparatus used by divers.[51] The sound effect is trademarked in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Trademark #77419252 and is officially described in the documentation as "The sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator."[52]

Commentators have often pointed to the influence of Akira Kurosawa's films such as The Hidden Fortress (1958) on George Lucas, and Vader's samurai-inspired costume design is held up as a significant example of the Japanese influences on Star Wars.[53]

Portrayals

David Prowse physically portrayed Vader in the original film trilogy.

Darth Vader was portrayed by bodybuilder David Prowse in the original film trilogy, with fencer Bob Anderson performing the character's lightsaber fight scenes.[54][55] At 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall, George Lucas thought Prowse "brought a physicality to Darth Vader that was essential for the character ... with an imposing stature and movement performance to match the intensity and undercurrent of Vader’s presence."[56]

Lucas chose to have a different actor be the voice of Vader, since Prowse had a strong West Country English accent that led the rest of the cast to nickname him "Darth Farmer". Lucas originally intended for Orson Welles to voice Vader, but after deciding that Welles's voice would be too recognizable, he cast the lesser-known James Earl Jones instead.[57][58] Jones initially felt his contributions to the films were too small to warrant recognition and his role was uncredited at his request until the release of Return of the Jedi (1983).[54] When Jones was specifically asked if he had supplied Vader's voice for Revenge of the Sith—either newly or from a previous recording—Jones answered, "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know."[59] Hayden Christensen and Gene Bryant alternately portray Vader in Revenge of the Sith.[60][61][62] During the production of Revenge of the Sith, Christensen asked Lucas if a special Vader suit could be constructed to fit his own body, rather than have a different actor don one of the original sets of Vader armor worn by Prowse.[63] Brock Peters provided the voice of Darth Vader in the NPR/USC radio series. Both Spencer Wilding[64] and Daniel Naprous portrayed Vader in Rogue One (2016), with Jones reprising his role as the character's voice.[65][66]

Vader's character has also been portrayed in several video games; in games such as Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire and Dark Forces, visual effects artist C. Andrew Nelson appears in short sequences in the Vader costume, voiced by Scott Lawrence. Matt Sloan, who appeared in the YouTube parody Chad Vader, provided the voice of Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed.[67] As a result of his video game appearances, Nelson was cast to appear as Vader in brief sequences inserted into the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, in which Vader is seen boarding his shuttle.[62]

During production of Return of the Jedi, the casting crew sought an experienced actor for the role of Anakin Skywalker since his death was unquestionably the emotional climax of the film, and Sebastian Shaw was selected for the role.[68][f] When Shaw arrived at the set for filming, he ran into his friend Ian McDiarmid, the actor playing the Emperor. When McDiarmid asked him what he was doing there, Shaw responded, "I don't know, dear boy, I think it's something to do with science-fiction."[70] His presence during the filming was kept secret from all but the minimum cast and crew, and Shaw was contractually obliged not to discuss any film secrets with anyone, even his family. The unmasking scene, directed by Richard Marquand, was filmed in one day and required only a few takes, with no alteration from the original dialogue.[68] Lucas personally directed Shaw for his appearance in the final scene of the film, in which he plays Anakin's Force spirit. Shaw's likeness in this scene was replaced with that of Christensen in the 2004 DVD release. This attempt to tie the prequel and original trilogies together was one of the most controversial changes in a Star Wars re-release.[71][72][g] Shaw received more fan mail and autograph requests from Return of the Jedi than he had for any role in the rest of his career. He later reflected that he enjoyed his experience on the film and expressed particular surprise that an action figure was made of his portrayal.[68]

James Earl Jones voiced Darth Vader in the original trilogy, Revenge of the Sith, and Rogue One.

When The Phantom Menace was being produced, hundreds of actors were tested for the role of young Anakin[74] before the producers settled on Jake Lloyd, who Lucas considered met his requirements of "a good actor, enthusiastic and very energetic". Producer Rick McCallum said that Lloyd was "smart, mischievous and loves anything mechanical—just like Anakin."[75][76] During production of Attack of the Clones, casting director Robin Gurland reviewed about 1,500 other candidates for the role of the young Anakin before Lucas eventually selected Hayden Christensen for the role.[77] When Revenge of the Sith was being produced, Christensen and Ewan McGregor began rehearsing their climactic lightsaber duel long before Lucas would shoot it. They trained extensively with stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to memorize and perform their duel together. As in the previous prequel film, McGregor and Christensen performed their own lightsaber fighting scenes without the use of stunt doubles.[78]

Anakin has also been voiced by Mat Lucas for the 2003 micro-series Clone Wars, and by Matt Lanter in the CGI animated film The Clone Wars, the television series of the same name and for Anakin's small roles in the animated series Rebels and Forces of Destiny.[79] James Earl Jones reprised the voice role for Vader's appearances in Rebels.[80][81] Both Lanter and Jones contributed their voices for the second-season finale of Rebels, at times with identical dialogue spoken by both actors blended together in different ways.[82]

Characteristics

In Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker feels "smothered" by Obi-Wan Kenobi and is incapable of controlling his own life.[83] By Revenge of the Sith, however, his "father-son" friction with his master has matured into a more equal, brotherly relationship.[84] Once he becomes Darth Vader, each evil act he commits shatters any hope or connection towards his previous life, which makes it harder for him to return to the light,[85] but he ultimately escapes the dark side and redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save his son, Luke Skywalker, and kill the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.[86]

Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at University of Toulouse Hospital, argued at the 2007 American Psychiatric Association convention that Anakin Skywalker meets six of the nine diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD), one more than necessary for a diagnosis. He and a colleague, Rachel Rodgers, published their findings in a 2010 letter to the editor of the journal Psychiatry Research. Bui says he found Anakin Skywalker a useful example to explain BPD to medical students.[87] In particular, Bui points to Anakin's abandonment issues and uncertainty over his identity. Anakin's mass murders of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones and the young Jedi in Revenge of the Sith count as two dissociative episodes, fulfilling another criterion. Bui hoped his paper would help raise awareness of the disorder, especially among teens.[87]

Appearances

Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker appears in seven of the live-action Star Wars films, the animated series The Clone Wars (including the film), Rebels, and the micro-series Clone Wars and Forces of Destiny. He also has a main and recurring role in games, comics, books and the non-canon Star Wars Legends material.

Skywalker saga

Main article: Skywalker saga

Original trilogy

Darth Vader first appears in Star Wars[d] as a ruthless cyborg Sith Lord serving the Galactic Empire.[54] He is tasked, along with Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), with recovering the secret plans for the Death Star superweapon, which were stolen by the Rebel Alliance. Vader captures and tortures Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who has hidden the plans inside the droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and sent it to find Vader's former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) on the planet Tatooine. During Leia's rescue by Obi-Wan's allies Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Vader strikes down Obi-Wan in a lightsaber duel. Having placed a tracking device aboard their ship, the Millennium Falcon, Vader is able to track down the Rebel base on the planet Yavin 4.[88] During the Rebel attack on the Death Star, Vader boards his TIE fighter and attempts to shoot down Rebel X-wing fighters, but Solo intervenes and sends Vader's ship spiraling off course, allowing Luke to destroy the Death Star.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader becomes obsessed with finding the Force-sensitive Luke[88] and leads his stormtroopers to attack on the Rebel base on Hoth, which the Rebels escape. While conversing with the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) via hologram, Vader convinces him that Luke would be a valuable ally if he could be turned to the dark side. Vader hires a group of bounty hunters to follow Luke's friends, and negotiates with Bespin administrator Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) to set a trap for them to bait Luke.[88] After Han, Leia, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) arrive, Vader tortures and freezes Han in carbonite and gives him to the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch).[88] When Luke arrives, Vader overpowers him in a lightsaber duel, severing his hand. Vader tells Luke that he is his father, and tries to persuade him to join the dark side and help him overthrow the Emperor. Horrified, Luke escapes through an air shaft. Vader telepathically tells Luke that it is his destiny to join the dark side.[88]

In Return of the Jedi, Vader and the Emperor supervise the final stages of the second Death Star's construction.[88] Thinking that there is still good in his father, Luke surrenders to Vader and tries to convince him to turn from the dark side. Vader takes Luke to the second Death Star to meet the Emperor. While there, the Emperor tempts Luke to give in to his anger, which leads to Vader dueling with Luke once again.[88] Realizing that Leia is Luke's twin sister, Vader threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not submit. Furious, Luke overpowers Vader and severs his father's cybernetic hand. The Emperor entreats Luke to kill Vader and take his place. Luke refuses and the Emperor tortures him with Force lightning. Unwilling to let his son die, Vader throws the Emperor down a reactor chute to his death, but is mortally wounded by his former master's lightning in the process.[88][89] The redeemed Anakin Skywalker asks Luke to remove his mask, and admits that there was still good in him after all as he dies peacefully in his son's arms.[89] Luke escapes the second Death Star with his father's body and cremates it in a pyre on Endor. As the Rebels celebrate the Death Star's destruction and the Empire's defeat, Luke sees the spirits of Anakin, Yoda (Frank Oz), and Obi-Wan watching over him.[89]

Prequel trilogy

In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which takes place 32 years before A New Hope, Anakin appears as a nine-year-old slave[34] living on Tatooine with his mother Shmi (Pernilla August). In addition to being a gifted pilot and mechanic, Anakin has built his own protocol droid, C-3PO. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) meets Anakin after making an emergency landing on Tatooine with Queen of Naboo Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). Qui-Gon learns from Shmi that Anakin was conceived without a father and can foresee the future. Qui-Gon senses Anakin's strong connection to the Force and becomes convinced that he is the "Chosen One" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force. After winning his freedom in a podrace wager, Anakin leaves with Qui-Gon to be trained as a Jedi on Coruscant, but is forced to leave his mother behind. During the journey, Anakin forms a bond with Padmé. Qui-Gon asks the Jedi Council for permission to train Anakin, but they sense fear in the boy and refuse. Eventually, Anakin helps end the corrupt Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo by destroying their control ship. After Qui-Gon is killed in a lightsaber duel with Sith Lord Darth Maul (portrayed by Ray Park, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz), Qui-Gon's apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) promises to train Anakin, with the council's reluctant approval.[89] Palpatine, newly elected as the Galactic Republic's Chancellor, befriends Anakin and tells him, "We will watch your career with great interest".

In Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which takes place 10 years after The Phantom Menace, 19-year-old Anakin is still Obi-Wan's Padawan apprentice. Over the years, he has grown powerful but arrogant, and believes that Obi-Wan is holding him back. After rescuing Padmé from an assassination attempt, Anakin travels with her to Naboo as her bodyguard, and they fall in love, which is against the Jedi Code. Sensing that Shmi is in pain, Anakin travels with Padmé to Tatooine to rescue his mother. While there, Anakin learns that Shmi had been freed by and married farmer Cliegg Lars (Jack Thompson) a few years after he left. He then visits Cliegg and learns from him that she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. Anakin locates Shmi at a Tusken campsite, where she dies in his arms. Overcome with grief and rage, Anakin massacres the Tusken tribe and returns to the Lars homestead to bury Shmi.[89] Anakin then travels with Padmé to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan from Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). Dooku captures the trio and sentences them to death. However, a battalion of Jedi arrives with an army of clone troopers to halt the executions. Obi-Wan and Anakin confront Dooku, but the Sith Lord beats them both in a lightsaber duel and severs Anakin's arm. After being rescued by Yoda, Anakin is fitted with a robotic arm and marries Padmé in a secret ceremony.

Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith (2005)

In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, set three years after Attack of the Clones, Anakin is now a Jedi Knight and a hero of the Clone Wars. He and Obi-Wan lead a mission to rescue Palpatine from Separatist commander General Grievous (voiced by Matthew Wood). The two Jedi battle Count Dooku, whom Anakin overpowers and decapitates in cold blood at Palpatine's urging. They rescue Palpatine and return to Coruscant. Anakin reunites with Padmé, who tells him that she is pregnant. Although initially excited, Anakin soon begins to have nightmares about Padmé dying in childbirth.[89] Palpatine also appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative. Suspicious of Palpatine, the Council allows Anakin as a member, but declines to grant him the rank of Jedi Master and instead instructs him to spy on Palpatine, diminishing Anakin's trust in the Jedi. Later, Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and says that only he has the power to save Padmé from dying. Anakin reports Palpatine's treachery to Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), who confronts and subdues the Sith Lord. Desperate to save Padmé, Anakin intervenes on Palpatine's behalf and disarms Windu, allowing Palpatine to kill him. Anakin then pledges himself to the Sith, and Palpatine dubs him Darth Vader.[89]

On Palpatine's orders, Vader leads the 501st Legion to kill everyone in the Jedi Temple, including the children, and then goes to the volcanic planet Mustafar to assassinate the Separatist Council. A distraught Padmé goes to Mustafar and implores Vader to abandon the dark side, but he refuses. Sensing Obi-Wan's presence, and thinking that they are conspiring to kill him, Vader angrily uses the Force to strangle Padmé to unconsciousness. Obi-Wan engages Vader in a lightsaber duel that ends with Obi-Wan severing Vader's limbs and leaving him for dead on the banks of a lava flow, where Vader slides too close and sustains severe burns. Palpatine finds a barely alive Vader and takes him to Coruscant, where his mutilated body is treated and covered in the black suit first depicted in the original trilogy. When Vader asks if Padmé is safe, Palpatine says that he killed her out of anger, and Vader screams in agony. At the end of the film, Vader supervises the construction of the first Death Star alongside Palpatine and Tarkin (Wayne Pygram).

Sequel trilogy

Darth Vader's melted helmet appears in The Force Awakens (2015), in which Vader's grandson Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is seen addressing him, though Vader does not appear in the film. At one point, his helmet was considered as the film's MacGuffin.[90] The helmet appears again in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), when Kylo briefly meditates with it, and during the film's first duel between Kylo and Rey (Daisy Ridley). The helmet is last seen on the planet Kijimi, which is later destroyed by a Sith Star Destroyer. The film also reveals that the voice which Ren perceived coming from Vader's helmet in The Force Awakens was generated by a resurrected Palpatine.

In The Rise of Skywalker, Anakin makes a vocal cameo, along with other "voices of Jedi Past", where he encourages Rey to "bring back the balance... as [he] did" before she faces Palpatine.[91][92]

Other Star Wars films

The Clone Wars (film)

In the 2008 3D animated film The Clone Wars, Yoda (voiced by Tom Kane) assigns Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) as Anakin's Padawan apprentice, a responsibility Anakin is at first reluctant to accept. Anakin calls her "Snips" for her "snippy" attitude, while Ahsoka calls him "Skyguy" as a pun on his surname.[89] After earning Anakin's respect during a dangerous mission, Ahsoka joins him on a quest to rescue Jabba the Hutt's infant son, Rotta. Her impetuousness both annoys and endears her to her master, and Anakin develops a friendly affection for his apprentice.

Rogue One

In the first anthology film Rogue One (2016), Darth Vader makes a cameo appearance in which he summons Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), the Imperial Director of Advanced Weapons Research, to his castle on Mustafar. He confronts him about his handling of the Death Star project and the destruction of Jedha City, while Krennic asks Vader for an audience with the Emperor regarding the Death Star, which he lost command of to Tarkin. Vader refuses, ordering him to ensure that the Death Star project has not been compromised.[93] When Krennic asks him if he would still regain command of the Death Star, Vader uses the Force to choke him, telling him, "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director."[94] At the end of the film, Vader boards the disabled Rebel flagship, the MC75 Star Cruiser Profundity, with a cadre of 501st Legion troopers and kills several Rebel soldiers as he attempts to recover the plans. However, the docked blockade runner Tantive IV escapes with the plans, setting up the events of A New Hope.

Darth Vader had a much different role in early versions of the film's story. Screenwriter Gary Whitta stated that in his initial pitch, Vader would appear on Scarif and slaughter the Rebel blockade there.[95] In an earlier storyline, Vader would also have killed Krennic for his failure to prevent the Rebels from stealing the Death Star plans.[96] An image of a deleted scene featuring Vader was revealed in February 2021 by Industrial Light & Magic visual effects animator Hal Hickel, who added that Vader was supposed to have a conversation with Tarkin in that scene.[97]

Television series

Clone Wars (2003–2005)

Anakin is a lead character in all three seasons of the Clone Wars micro-series, which takes place shortly after the conclusion of Attack of the Clones. Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight and is quickly promoted to a General of the Republic's Clone Army, due in part to Palpatine's (voiced by Nick Jameson) influence. Among other missions, he fights a duel with Dooku's apprentice Asajj Ventress (voiced by Grey DeLisle), helps Obi-Wan (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) capture a Separatist-controlled fortress and rescues Jedi Master Saesee Tiin (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) during a space battle. During the third season, Anakin frees a planet's indigenous species from Separatist control and sees a cryptic vision of his future as Darth Vader. In the series finale, Anakin and Obi-Wan go on a mission to rescue Palpatine from General Grievous, leading to the opening of Revenge of the Sith.

The Clone Wars (2008–2014, 2020)

Anakin is a lead character in all seasons of The Clone Wars. As a Jedi Knight, he leads the 501st Legion on missions with both his master Obi-Wan and apprentice Ahsoka Tano throughout the war. Some of Anakin's actions taken out of concern for Ahsoka violate the Jedi code, such as torturing prisoners who may know her location when she goes missing.[98] Throughout the series there are several references to Anakin's eventual fall to the dark side, including visions of his future as Darth Vader in the third season, and disillusion with the Jedi Council after they wrongly accuse Ahsoka of bombing the Jedi Temple in the fifth season. While she is later forgiven after the true culprit is found, she nonetheless chooses to leave the Jedi Order.[99] Anakin appears as Vader in the final scene of the series finale, some time after Revenge of the Sith. He investigates the crash site of Ahsoka's Star Destroyer, which collapsed during her battle with her clone troopers after Darth Sidious issued Order 66, turning the clones against the Jedi. Finding her lightsaber among the wreckage, Vader assumes that his former Padawan has perished and leaves with the lightsaber.

Rebels (2014–2018)

Darth Vader appears in the first season of Star Wars Rebels, which takes place 14 years after The Clone Wars concludes, and serves as the main antagonist of its second season.[100] Vader leads a squadron of Force-sensitive Imperial Inquisitors who actively search for and kill any remaining Jedi and Force-sensitive children. In the first season, he dispatches the Grand Inquisitor, and arrives on the planet Lothal when the Inquisitor is killed. In the second-season premiere, Vader orchestrates the murder of Imperial Minister Maketh Tua, who tried to defect to the Rebellion, and confronts the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger. When he later attacks the fleet of the Phoenix Squadron, Vader discovers that Ahsoka is still alive and has joined the Rebel Alliance,[101] while Ahsoka is overwhelmed when she recognizes Anakin under "a layer of hate" in Darth Vader. The Emperor orders Vader to dispatch another Inquisitor to capture her.[42] Later in the season, Ahsoka has a vision in which Anakin blames her for allowing him to fall to the dark side. In the season finale, Ahsoka duels with her former master inside a Sith Temple, allowing her friends to escape Vader and the temple's destruction. As the episode concludes, Vader escapes from the temple's ruins. Vader makes a final voiceless cameo in the late fourth-season episode "A World Between Worlds", in which it is revealed that Ahsoka escaped from her previous duel with Vader by entering a Force-realm. Shortly afterward, Vader's voice is heard echoing in the void.

Forces of Destiny (2017–2018)

Anakin Skywalker appears in multiple episodes of the 2D animated online micro-series Star Wars Forces of Destiny.[79]

Obi-Wan Kenobi

On December 10, 2020, during a Disney Investor event, it was announced that Hayden Christensen would return as Vader in the upcoming Disney+ streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi.[102]

Canon literature

In the first chapter of the novelization of The Phantom Menace, Anakin participates in a podrace[103] through Beggar's Canyon on Tatooine. This parallels his future son Luke's flights through the same canyon as mentioned in A New Hope.[104]

Star Wars: Lords of the Sith was one of the first four canon novels to be released in 2014 and 2015.[105] In it, Vader and Palpatine find themselves hunted by revolutionaries on the Twi'lek planet Ryloth.[106][107]

Comics

In 2015, Marvel released a 25-issue series called Darth Vader (2015–16),[108] written by Kieron Gillen. It focuses on the Sith lord in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction, as well as his life after learning about his son's existence,[109] and introduces franchise fan favorite character Doctor Aphra.[110] This series takes place parallel to the comic book series Star Wars, in which Vader and Luke meet;[111] the two series have a crossover titled Vader Down.[112] A continuation set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi debuted in 2020, written by Greg Pak.[113] The first few issues deal with Vader carrying out his revenge on those who concealed Luke; he also visits Padmé's tomb on Naboo and encounters her handmaidens.[114]

The five-issue limited series Obi-Wan & Anakin (2016), written by Charles Soule, depicts the lives of the titular Jedi between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. At New York Comic Con 2015, Soule described the story as "pretty unexplored territory".[115]

Between 2017 and 2018, Soule wrote a prequel-era series, also called Darth Vader (sometimes subtitled Dark Lord of the Sith). It begins immediately after Vader wakes up in his armor at the end of Revenge of the Sith and explores his emotional transformation upon learning of Padmé's death, his adjustment to his mechanical suit, how he creates his red-bladed lightsaber, and his hunting of Jedi in the Inquisitor program (introduced in Rebels).[116] Its final arc, which deals with the construction of Vader's fortress on Mustafar, implies that Palpatine used the Force to conceive Anakin in utero,[117] as some had theorized that Revenge of the Sith indicates.[118][h] A Lucasfilm story group member later clarified that "This is all in Anakin's head".[119][i]

A five-issue limited series written by Dennis Hopeless, Vader: Dark Visions, was released in 2019. According to Marvel, the series "sheds new light on the many sides of the galaxy's greatest villain".[120]

Virtual reality game

Main article: Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series

In the 2015 Star Wars Celebration, it was announced David S. Goyer was helping to develop a virtual reality game series based on Darth Vader. As an observer with limited influence, the player is able to walk, pick up, push and open things, and possibly affect the story.[121] The game, titled Vader Immortal, had three episodes overall, set between Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One; the first became available with the launch of Oculus Quest,[122] while the last episode was released on November 21, 2019.[123] The game was later ported to the Oculus Rift. On August 25, 2020, all three episodes were also released on PlayStation VR.[124]

Legends

In April 2014, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded by Lucasfilm as Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise.[105][125]

Books

Vader is featured prominently in novels set in the Star Wars universe. In the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, Vader meets Luke Skywalker for the first time and engages him in a lightsaber duel that ends with Luke cutting off Vader's arm and Vader falling into a deep pit.[54] Shadows of the Empire (1996) reveals that Vader is conflicted about trying to turn his son to the dark side of the Force, and knows deep down that he still has good in him.

Vader's supposedly indestructible glove is the MacGuffin of the young-reader's book The Glove of Darth Vader (1992). Anakin Skywalker's redeemed spirit appears in The Truce at Bakura (1993), set a few days after the end of Return of the Jedi. He appears to Leia, imploring her forgiveness. Leia condemns Anakin for his crimes and banishes him from her life. He promises that he will be there for her when she needs him, and disappears. In Tatooine Ghost (2003), Leia learns to forgive her father after learning about his childhood as a slave and his mother's traumatic death. In The Unifying Force (2003), Anakin tells his grandson Jacen Solo to "stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Upon the release of the prequel films, the Expanded Universe grew to include novels about Vader's former life as Anakin Skywalker. Greg Bear's 2000 novel Rogue Planet and Jude Watson's Jedi Quest series chronicle Anakin's early missions with Obi-Wan, while James Luceno's 2005 novel Labyrinth of Evil, set during the Clone Wars, depicts Anakin battling Separatist commander General Grievous. In Luceno's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (2005), set a few months after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Vader disavows his identity as Anakin Skywalker as he systematically pursues and kills the surviving Jedi and cements his position in the Empire. The novel reveals that Vader plans to eventually overthrow Palpatine, and that he betrayed the Jedi because he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power.

In the Dark Nest trilogy (2005), Luke and Leia uncover old recordings of their parents in R2-D2's memory drive; for the first time, they see their own birth and their mother's death, as well as their father's corruption to the dark side. In Bloodlines (2006), Han and Leia's son Jacen—who has turned to the dark side—uses the Force to envision Vader slaughtering the children at the Jedi Temple.

Vader also appears in a series of tongue-in-cheek children's books by Jeffrey Brown.[126] In Brown's series, a hapless Vader sets out to be a father to a young Luke and Leia, with some scenes portraying light-hearted versions of their darker film counterparts. For example, one scene shows Vader, Luke and Leia at the carbonite freezing chamber on Bespin, with Vader pronouncing the freezer adequate for making ice cream.

Comics

See also: Star Wars comics

Vader appears in several comic books such as Marvel Comics' Star Wars (1977–1986). In Dark Empire II, he is revealed to have had a castle on the planet Vjun.[127] Anakin Skywalker is a major character in Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Republic series (1998–2006). In Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire (1999), Vader hires Fett a few years before the events of A New Hope. In Vader's Quest (1999), set soon after A New Hope, the dark lord encounters Luke for the first time.[j] Star Wars: Empire (2002–2005) spans from about a year before A New Hope to several months afterwards. Anakin and Vader appear in the non-canonical Star Wars Tales (1999–2005); in the story Resurrection, Darth Maul is resurrected and faces Vader in battle.[129]

Vader-centric comics released and set just after Revenge of the Sith include Dark Times (2006–2013), Darth Vader and the Lost Command (2011), Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison (2012), and Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows (2013–14).

Video games

Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker have appeared in a number of Star Wars since the earliest days of the franchise, though rarely as a playable character. Vader plays a central role in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008), where he is the playable character for the first level of the game. He also appears in the sequel Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II as the final boss. Darth Vader has also appeared in non-Star Wars video games as a guest character, for example Soulcalibur IV (2008).

Most recently, Vader makes a cameo appearance in the final mission of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, after the main antagonist, the Second Sister, is defeated. After Vader kills her for her failure to retrieve a Jedi Holocron, the protagonist, Padawan Cal Kestis, must escape from Vader, who attempts to get the Holocron in his possession. Cal is ultimately able to escape from Vader's grasp with the help of his allies.

Other

In the Star Wars Holiday Special, a television special broadcast by CBS in 1978, features a brief appearance by Darth Vader, who appears on-screen speaking with Imperial officer "Chief Bast" in footage cut from the original 1977 film. The sequence is dubbed with new dialogue, performed by James Earl Jones. In the story, Vader colludes with Boba Fett to entrap the Rebels.[130]

Darth Vader features in the 1981 radio drama adaptation of Star Wars, voiced by the actor Brock Peters. Vader makes his first appearance on the planet Ralltiir, where he treats Princess Leia with suspicion. In later extended scenes, he is heard interrogating and torturing Leia on board his Star Destroyer and aboard the Death Star.[131][132]

Vader appears in Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, where he is once again voiced by Jones.[133]

An action figure of Vader comes to life alongside RoboCop and Jurassic Park toys in The Indian in the Cupboard (1995).[134] Vader also had a brief cameo in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), in which he and Oscar the Grouch try unsuccessfully to join the army formed by Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone.[135][136]

Cultural impact

See also: Cultural impact of Star Wars

In 1977, a writer for New Journal and Guide criticized the lack of racial diversity in the original Star Wars film, pointing out that "the force of evil ... is dressed in all black and has the voice of a black man."[137] George Lucas felt hurt at such accusations.[138]

Psychiatrists have considered Vader to be a useful example for explaining borderline personality disorder to medical students.[87] Anakin's origin story in The Phantom Menace has been compared to signifiers of African American racial identity, particularly his being a slave,[139] and his dissatisfaction with his life has been compared to Siddartha's before he became Gautama Buddha.[140] A Mexican church advised Christians against seeing The Phantom Menace because it portrays Anakin as a Christ figure.[141]

The Darth Vader Grotesque sculpted into the Washington National Cathedral

Many films and television series have paid homage to Darth Vader. The 1982 movie Cosmic Princess, compiled from parts of Space: 1999 episodes, contains several Star Wars references including a character named "Vader".[142] Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985), dressed in a radiation suit, calls himself "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" in one scene. Vader is parodied as "Dark Helmet" (Rick Moranis) in the Star Wars parody Spaceballs (1987). A primary antagonist in Final Fantasy IV (1991) was stated by game creator Takashi Tokita to be based on Vader.[143] In Chasing Amy (1997), Hooper X (Dwight Ewell) speaks at a comic book convention about Darth Vader being a metaphor for how poorly the science fiction genre treats Black people; he is especially offended that Vader, the "Blackest brother in the galaxy", reveals himself to be a "feeble, crusty old white man" at the end of Return of the Jedi. Vader, especially his role as a father, is parodied as Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2.[144] The character of Dark Mayhem in The Thundermans is also a parody of Vader, especially in his original depiction. The Warner Bros. animated show Loonatics Unleashed has a Sylvester the Cat-type character named Sylth Vester, a play on Vader and his name.

The slime-mold beetle Agathidium vaderi is named after Vader,[145] as is the louse Ricinus vaderi.[146] Several buildings across the globe are regularly compared to him.[147][148][149][150][151] A grotesque of Darth Vader looms over the east face of the Washington National Cathedral's northwest tower.[152] During the 2007–08 NHL season, Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber performed so well in an all-black mask that fans endearingly termed him "Darth Gerber".[153]

Many commentators and comedians have also evoked Vader's visage to satirize politicians and other public figures, and several American political figures have been unflatteringly compared to the character. In response to Ronald Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (dubbed "Star Wars" by his political opponents), German news magazine Der Spiegel portrayed the president wearing Vader's helmet on its cover in 1984.[154] In 2005, Al Gore referred to Tele-Communications Inc.'s John C. Malone as the "Darth Vader of cable",[155] and political strategist Lee Atwater was known by his political enemies as "the Darth Vader of the Republican Party".[156] Native American artist Bunky Echohawk portrayed General George Armstrong Custer as Vader in his painting Darth Custer.[157] In 2015, a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Odessa, Ukraine, was converted into one of Vader due to a law on decommunization.[158]

In 2006, while discussing the war on terror, US Vice President Dick Cheney stated, "I suppose, sometimes, people look at my demeanor and say, 'Well, he's the Darth Vader of the administration.'"[159] In January 2007, Jon Stewart put on a Vader helmet to address Cheney as a "kindred spirit" on The Daily Show.[160] Cheney's wife, Lynne, presented Stewart with a Darth Vader action figure on her October 2007 appearance on the show. Both Stewart and Stephen Colbert have occasionally referred to Cheney as "Darth Cheney". In the satirical cartoon show Lil' Bush, Cheney's father is portrayed as Vader. At a presidential campaign event in September 2007, Hillary Clinton also referred to Cheney as Vader. At the 2008 Washington Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner, Cheney joked that his wife told him that the Vader comparison "humanizes" him. In 2009, George Lucas stated that Cheney is more akin to Palpatine, and that a better stand-in for Vader would be George W. Bush.[161] An issue of Newsweek referenced this quote, and compared Bush and Cheney to Vader and Palpatine, respectively, in a satirical article comparing politicians to various Star Wars and Star Trek characters.[162]

In 2010, IGN ranked Darth Vader 25th in the "Top 100 Videogame Villains".[163]

In Ukraine, the Internet Party of Ukraine regularly lets people named Darth Vader take part in elections.[164][k]

In 2019, an original Vader helmet from The Empire Strikes Back was sold for $900,000 in an online auction.[172]

On December 2, 2020, a figurine of Darth Vader appeared on the plinth where the statue of Edward Colston once stood in Bristol, United Kingdom, in what was seen as a tribute to the actor David Prowse, who died on November 29, 2020.[173]

Science fiction

The alien invasion featured in H. G. Wells' 1897 novel The War of the Worlds, as illustrated in an iconic drawing by Henrique Alvim Corrêa.

Space exploration, as predicted in August 1958 in the science fiction magazine Imagination.

Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.[1][2]

Science fiction, whose roots go back to ancient times, is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction, and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.

Science fiction literature, film, television, and other media have become popular and influential over much of the world. Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society, and is often said to inspire a "sense of wonder".[3]

Definitions

Main article: Definitions of science fiction

American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction."[4] Whereas, according to Isaac Asimov, "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology."[5] Furthermore, Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."[6] Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it."[7]

Alternative terms

Further information: Skiffy

Forrest J Ackerman is credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy "hi-fi") in 1954.[8] As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies," and with low-quality pulp science fiction.[9][10][11] By the 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr, were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction.[12] Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers."[13] Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested the term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful."[14]

History

Main articles: History of science fiction and Timeline of science fiction

Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for Lucian's A True Story.

Science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred.[15] Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life. Some consider it the first science-fiction novel.[16] Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights,[17][18] along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter[18] and Ibn al-Nafis's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus,[19] also contain elements of science fiction.

Written during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634), Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627),[20] Athanasius Kircher's Itinerarium extaticum (1656),[21] Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World" (1666),[22][23][24][25] Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Ludvig Holberg's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) and Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works.[26][27] Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science-fiction story; it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earth's motion is seen from there.[28][29]

Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science fiction.[30][31] Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) which featured a trip to the Moon.[32][33] Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).[34][35][36][37] In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine.[38][39]

H. G. Wells.

Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors,[34][40] or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction."[41] His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel. In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.[42]

Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero.[43] In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. In its first issue he wrote:

By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in a very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well.[44][45][46]

In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith's first published work, The Skylark of Space, written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby, appeared in Amazing Stories. It is often called the first great space opera.[47] The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan's original Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419, also appeared in Amazing Stories. This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip, the first serious science-fiction comic.[48]

In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction, an event which is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress.[49] In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series, which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory.[50][51] The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series."[52][53] The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes the late 1940s and the 1950s are included.[54]

Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human (1953) explored possible future human evolution.[55][56][57] In 1957, Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by the Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels.[58][59] In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels.[60] It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction,[61][62] and introduced the concept of powered armor exoskeletons.[63][64][65] The German space opera series Perry Rhodan, written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing[66] and has since expanded in space to multiple universes, and in time by billions of years.[67] It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time.[68]

In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously "literary" or "artistic" sensibility.[26][69][70] In 1961, Solaris by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland.[71] The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet.[72][73] 1965's Dune by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previous science fiction.[74]

In 1967 Anne McCaffrey began her Dragonriders of Pern science fantasy series.[75] Two of the novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight, made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award.[76] In 1968, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was published. It is the literary source of the Blade Runner movie franchise.[77][78] 1969's The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender. It is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction, feminist science fiction, and anthropological science fiction.[79][80][81]

In 1979, Science Fiction World began publication in the People's Republic of China.[82] It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market, at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3-5 readers per copy (giving it a total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical.[83] In 1984, William Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer, helped popularize cyberpunk and the word "cyberspace," a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome.[84][85][86] In 1986, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga.[87][88] 1992's Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to the information revolution.[89]

In 2007, Liu Cixin's novel, The Three-Body Problem, was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014,[90] and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel,[91] making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award.[92]

Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues, the implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology, nanotechnology, and post-scarcity societies.[93][94] Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk,[95] biopunk,[96][97] and mundane science fiction.[98][99]

Film

Main articles: Science fiction film and Lists of science fiction films

The Maschinenmensch from Metropolis.

The first, or at least one of the first, recorded science fiction film is 1902's A Trip to the Moon, directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès.[100] It was profoundly influential on later filmmakers, bringing a different kind of creativity and fantasy to the cinematic medium.[101][102] In addition, Méliès's innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the medium.[103][104]

1927's Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is the first feature-length science fiction film.[105] Though not well received in its time,[106] it is now considered a great and influential film.[107][108][109] In 1954, Godzilla, directed by Ishirō Honda, began the kaiju subgenre of science fiction film, which feature large creatures of any form, usually attacking a major city or engaging other monsters in battle.[110][111]

1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke, rose above the mostly B-movie offerings up to that time both in scope and quality, and greatly influenced later science fiction films.[112][113][114][115] That same year, Planet of the Apes (the original), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle, was released to popular and critical acclaim, due in large part to its vivid depiction of a post-apocalyptic world in which intelligent apes dominate humans.[116]

In 1977, George Lucas began the Star Wars film series with the film now identified as "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope."[117] The series, often called a space opera,[118] went on to become a worldwide popular culture phenomenon,[119][120] and the second-highest-grossing film series of all time.[121]

Since the 1980s, science fiction films, along with fantasy, horror, and superhero films, have dominated Hollywood's big-budget productions.[122][121] Science fiction films often "cross-over" with other genres, including animation (WALL-E - 2008, Big Hero 6 - 2014), gangster (Sky Racket - 1937), Western (Serenity - 2005), comedy (Spaceballs -1987, Galaxy Quest - 1999), war (Enemy Mine - 1985), action (Edge of Tomorrow - 2014, The Matrix - 1999), adventure (Jupiter Ascending - 2015, Interstellar - 2014), sports (Rollerball - 1975), mystery (Minority Report - 2002), thriller (Ex Machina - 2014), horror (Alien - 1979), film noir (Blade Runner - 1982), superhero (Marvel Cinematic Universe - 2008-), drama (Melancholia - 2011, Predestination - 2014), and romance (Her (film) - 2013).[123]

Television

Main articles: Science fiction on television and List of science fiction television programs

Don Hastings (left) and Al Hodge in Captain Video and His Video Rangers.

Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[124]

The first known science fiction television program was a thirty-five-minute adapted excerpt of the play RUR, written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek, broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on 11 February 1938.[125] The first popular science fiction program on American television was the children's adventure serial Captain Video and His Video Rangers, which ran from June 1949 to April 1955.[126]

The Twilight Zone (the original series), produced and narrated by Rod Serling, who also wrote or co-wrote most of the episodes, ran from 1959 to 1964. It featured fantasy, suspense, and horror as well as science fiction, with each episode being a complete story.[127][128] Critics have ranked it as one of the best TV programs of any genre.[129][130]

The animated series The Jetsons, while intended as comedy and only running for one season (1962–1963), predicted many inventions now in common use: flat-screen televisions, newspapers on a computer-like screen, computer viruses, video chat, tanning beds, home treadmills, and more.[131] In 1963, the time travel-themed Doctor Who premiered on BBC Television.[132] The original series ran until 1989 and was revived in 2005.[133] It has been extremely popular worldwide and has greatly influenced later TV science fiction.[134][135][136] Other programs in the 1960s included The Outer Limits (1963-1965),[137] Lost in Space (1965-1968), and The Prisoner (1967).[138][139][140]

Star Trek (the original series), created by Gene Roddenberry, premiered in 1966 on NBC Television and ran for three seasons.[141] It combined elements of space opera and Space Western.[142] Only mildly successful at first, the series gained popularity through syndication and extraordinary fan interest. It became a very popular and influential franchise with many films, television shows, novels, and other works and products.[143][144][145][146] Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) led to four additional Star Trek shows (Deep Space 9 (1993-1999), Voyager (1995-2001), Enterprise (2001-2005), and Discovery (2017–present))--with more in some form of development.[147][148][149][150]

The miniseries V premiered in 1983 on NBC.[151] It depicted an attempted takeover of Earth by reptilian aliens.[152] Red Dwarf, a comic science fiction series aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009.[153] The X-Files, which featured UFOs and conspiracy theories, was created by Chris Carter and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company from 1993 to 2002,[154][155] and again from 2016 to 2018.[156][157] Stargate, a film about ancient astronauts and interstellar teleportation, was released in 1994. Stargate SG-1 premiered in 1997 and ran for 10 seasons (1997-2007). Spin-off series included Stargate Infinity (2002-2003), Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), and Stargate Universe (2009-2011).[158] Other 1990s series included Quantum Leap (1989-1993) and Babylon 5 (1994-1999).[159]

SyFy, launched in 1992 as The Sci-Fi Channel,[160] specializes in science fiction, supernatural horror, and fantasy.[161][162]

Orphan Black began its 5 season run in 2013, about a woman who assumes the identity of one of her several genetically identical human clones. In December of the same year debuted Rick and Morty, an adult animated sci-fi series following the outer space and across dimensions misadventures of a cynical mad scientist and his good-hearted but fretful grandson. In late 2015 SyFy premiered The Expanse to great critical acclaim, an American tv series about Humanity's colonization of the Solar System. Its later seasons would then be aired through Amazon Prime Video.

Exploring The Ethics of Future Technology

In the example of the Star Trek franchise of science fiction, writers often use the idea of modifying the human DNA and examine the ethical dilemmas we would have. [163] [164] See Wikipedia articles Human germline engineering, Genome editing, CRISPR gene editing, Genetic engineering, Designer baby, Gene therapy.

Social influence

Science fiction's great rise in popularity during the first half of the 20th century was closely tied to the popular respect paid to science at that time, as well as the rapid pace of technological innovation and new inventions.[165] Science fiction has often predicted scientific and technological progress.[166][167] Some works predict that new inventions and progress will tend to improve life and society, for instance the stories of Arthur C. Clarke and Star Trek.[168] Others, such as H.G. Wells's The Time Machine and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, warn about possible negative consequences.[169][170]

In 2001 the National Science Foundation conducted a survey on "Public Attitudes and Public Understanding: Science Fiction and Pseudoscience."[171] It found that people who read or prefer science fiction may think about or relate to science differently than other people. They also tend to support the space program and the idea of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations.[171][172] Carl Sagan wrote: "Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction."[173]

Brian Aldiss described science fiction as "cultural wallpaper."[174] Evidence for this widespread influence can be found in trends for writers to employ science fiction as a tool for advocacy and generating cultural insights, as well as for educators when teaching across a range of academic disciplines not limited to the natural sciences.[175] Scholar and science fiction critic George Edgar Slusser said that science fiction "is the one real international literary form we have today, and as such has branched out to visual media, interactive media and on to whatever new media the world will invent in the 21st century. Crossover issues between the sciences and the humanities are crucial for the century to come."[176]

As protest literature

Further information: Political ideas in science fiction and Social novel

"Happy 1984" in Spanish or Portuguese, referencing George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, on a standing piece of the Berlin Wall (sometime after 1998).

Science fiction has sometimes been used as a means of social protest. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is an important work of dystopian science fiction.[177][178] It is often invoked in protests against governments and leaders who are seen as totalitarian.[179][180] James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar was intended as a protest against imperialism, and specifically the European colonization of the Americas.[181] Its images have been used by, among others, Palestinians in their protests against the State of Israel.[182]

Robots, artificial humans, human clones, intelligent computers, and their possible conflicts with human society have all been major themes of science fiction since, at least, the publication of Shelly's Frankenstein. Some critics have seen this as reflecting authors’ concerns over the social alienation seen in modern society.[183]

Feminist science fiction poses questions about social issues such as how society constructs gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender, and the inequitable political or personal power of one gender over others. Some works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.[184][185]

Climate fiction, or "cli-fi," deals with issues concerning climate change and global warming.[186][187] University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi,[188] and it is often discussed by other media outside of science fiction fandom.[189]

Libertarian science fiction focuses on the politics and social order implied by right libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and private property, and in some cases anti-statism.[190]

Science fiction comedy often satirizes and criticizes present-day society, and sometimes makes fun of the conventions and clichés of more serious science fiction.[191][192]

Sense of wonder

Main article: Sense of wonder

Further information: Wonder (emotion)

Science fiction is often said to inspire a "sense of wonder." Science fiction editor and critic David Hartwell wrote: "Science fiction’s appeal lies in combination of the rational, the believable, with the miraculous. It is an appeal to the sense of wonder."[193] Carl Sagan said: "One of the great benefits of science fiction is that it can convey bits and pieces, hints, and phrases, of knowledge unknown or inaccessible to the reader . . . works you ponder over as the water is running out of the bathtub or as you walk through the woods in an early winter snowfall."[173]

In 1967, Isaac Asimov commented on the changes then occurring in the science fiction community: "And because today’s real life so resembles day-before-yesterday’s fantasy, the old-time fans are restless. Deep within, whether they admit it or not, is a feeling of disappointment and even outrage that the outer world has invaded their private domain. They feel the loss of a 'sense of wonder' because what was once truly confined to 'wonder' has now become prosaic and mundane."[194]

Science fiction studies

Main article: Science fiction studies

The study of science fiction, or science fiction studies, is the critical assessment, interpretation, and discussion of science fiction literature, film, TV shows, new media, fandom, and fan fiction.[195] Science fiction scholars study science fiction to better understand it and its relationship to science, technology, politics, other genres, and culture-at-large.[196] Science fiction studies began around the turn of the 20th century, but it was not until later that science fiction studies solidified as a discipline with the publication of the academic journals Extrapolation (1959), Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction (1972), and Science Fiction Studies (1973),[197][198] and the establishment of the oldest organizations devoted to the study of science fiction in 1970, the Science Fiction Research Association and the Science Fiction Foundation.[199][200] The field has grown considerably since the 1970s with the establishment of more journals, organizations, and conferences, as well as science fiction degree-granting programs such as those offered by the University of Liverpool[201] and the University of Kansas.[202]

Classification

Further information: Hard science fiction and Soft science fiction

Science fiction has historically been sub-divided between hard science fiction and soft science fiction–with the division centering on the feasibility of the science central to the story.[203] However, this distinction has come under increasing scrutiny in the 21st century. Some authors, such as Tade Thompson and Jeff VanderMeer, have pointed out that stories that focus explicitly on physics, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering tend to be considered "hard" science fiction, while stories that focus on botany, mycology, zoology, and the social sciences tend to be categorized as "soft," regardless of the relative rigor of the science.[204]

Max Gladstone defined "hard" science fiction as stories "where the math works," but pointed out that this ends up with stories that often seem "weirdly dated," as scientific paradigms shift over time.[205] Michael Swanwick dismissed the traditional definition of "hard" SF altogether, instead saying that it was defined by characters striving to solve problems "in the right way–with determination, a touch of stoicism, and the consciousness that the universe is not on his or her side."[204]

Ursula K. Le Guin also criticized the more traditional view on the difference between "hard" and "soft" SF: "The 'hard' science fiction writers dismiss everything except, well, physics, astronomy, and maybe chemistry. Biology, sociology, anthropology—that's not science to them, that's soft stuff. They're not that interested in what human beings do, really. But I am. I draw on the social sciences a great deal."[206]

As serious literature

Further information: Literature and Novel

Illustration by Theodor von Holst for 1831 edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.[207]

Respected authors of mainstream literature have written science fiction. Mary Shelley wrote a number of science fiction novels including Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), and is considered a major writer of the Romantic Age.[208] Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) is often listed as one of England's most important novels, both for its criticism of modern culture and its prediction of future trends including reproductive technology and social engineering.[209][210][211][212] Kurt Vonnegut was a highly respected American author whose works contain science fiction premises or themes.[213][214][215] Other science fiction authors whose works are widely considered to be "serious" literature include Ray Bradbury (including, especially, Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and The Martian Chronicles (1951)),[216] Arthur C. Clarke (especially for Childhood's End),[217][218] and Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, writing under the name Cordwainer Smith.[219] In his book "The Western Canon", literary critic Harold Bloom includes Brave New World, Solaris, Cat's Cradle (1963) by Vonnegut, and The Left Hand of Darkness as culturally and aesthetically significant works of western literature.

David Barnett has pointed out that there are books such as The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy, Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell, The Gone-Away World (2008) by Nick Harkaway, The Stone Gods (2007) by Jeanette Winterson, and Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood, which use recognizable science fiction tropes, but whose authors and publishers do not market them as science fiction.[220] Doris Lessing, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, wrote a series of five SF novels, Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979-1983), which depict the efforts of more advanced species and civilizations to influence those less advanced, including humans on Earth.[221][222][223][224]

In her much reprinted 1976 essay "Science Fiction and Mrs Brown," Ursula K. Le Guin was asked: "Can a science fiction writer write a novel?" She answered: "I believe that all novels, . . . deal with character, and that it is to express character–not to preach doctrines [or] sing songs... that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved. . . . The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise, they would not be novelists, but poets, historians, or pamphleteers."[225] Orson Scott Card, best known for his 1985 science fiction novel Ender's Game, has postulated that in science fiction the message and intellectual significance of the work are contained within the story itself and, therefore, does not need stylistic gimmicks or literary games.[226][227]

Jonathan Lethem, in a 1998 essay in the Village Voice entitled "Close Encounters: The Squandered Promise of Science Fiction," suggested that the point in 1973 when Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow was nominated for the Nebula Award and was passed over in favor of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, stands as "a hidden tombstone marking the death of the hope that SF was about to merge with the mainstream."[228] In the same year science fiction author and physicist Gregory Benford wrote: "SF is perhaps the defining genre of the twentieth century, although its conquering armies are still camped outside the Rome of the literary citadels."[229]

Community

Authors

See also: List of science fiction authors

Science fiction is being written, and has been written, by diverse authors from around the world. According to 2013 statistics by the science fiction publisher Tor Books, men outnumber women by 78% to 22% among submissions to the publisher.[230] A controversy about voting slates in the 2015 Hugo Awards highlighted tensions in the science fiction community between a trend of increasingly diverse works and authors being honored by awards, and reaction by groups of authors and fans who preferred what they considered more "traditional" science fiction.[231]

Awards

Main article: List of science fiction awards

Among the most respected and well-known awards for science fiction are the Hugo Award for literature, presented by the World Science Fiction Society at Worldcon, and voted on by fans;[232] the Nebula Award for literature, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and voted on by the community of authors;[233] the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, presented by a jury of writers;[234] and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction, presented by a jury.[235] One notable award for science fiction films and TV programs is the Saturn Award, which is presented annually by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films.[236]

There are other national awards, like Canada's Prix Aurora Awards,[237] regional awards, like the Endeavour Award presented at Orycon for works from the U.S. Pacific Northwest,[238] and special interest or subgenre awards such as the Chesley Award for art, presented by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists,[239] or the World Fantasy Award for fantasy.[240] Magazines may organize reader polls, notably the Locus Award.[241]

Conventions, clubs, and organizations

Main article: Science fiction convention

Writer Pamela Dean reading at the Minneapolis convention known as Minicon in 2006

Conventions (in fandom, often shortened as "cons," such as "comic-con") are held in cities around the world, catering to a local, regional, national, or international membership.[242][243][244] General-interest conventions cover all aspects of science fiction, while others focus on a particular interest like media fandom, filking, and so on.[245][246] Most science fiction conventions are organized by volunteers in non-profit groups, though most media-oriented events are organized by commercial promoters.[247] The convention's activities are called the program, which may include panel discussions, readings, autograph sessions, costume masquerades, and other events.[248] Additional activities occur throughout the convention that are not part of the program.[248] These commonly include a dealer's room, art show, and hospitality lounge (or "con suites").[248]

Conventions may host award ceremonies. For instance, Worldcon presents the Hugo Awards each year.[249] SF societies, referred to as "clubs" except in formal contexts, form a year-round base of activities for science fiction fans.[250][251][252][253] They may be associated with an ongoing science fiction convention, or have regular club meetings, or both.[254] Long-established groups like the New England Science Fiction Association and the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society have clubhouses for meetings and storage of convention supplies and research materials.[255] The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) was founded by Damon Knight in 1965 as a non-profit organization to serve the community of professional science fiction authors.[256]

Fandom and fanzines

Main articles: Science fiction fandom and Science-fiction fanzine

Science fiction fandom is the "community of the literature of ideas[,] . . . the culture in which new ideas emerge and grow before being released into society at large."[2] Members of this community ("fans"), as discussed above, are often in contact with each other at conventions or clubs, through print or online fanzines, or on the Internet using websites, mailing lists, and other resources. SF fandom emerged from the letters column in Amazing Stories magazine: soon fans began writing letters to each other, and then grouping their comments together in informal publications that became known as fanzines.[257] Once they were in regular contact, fans wanted to meet each other, and they organized local clubs.[257][258] In the 1930s, the first science fiction conventions gathered fans from a wider area.[258]

The earliest organized online fandom was the SF Lovers Community, originally a mailing list in the late 1970s with a text archive file that was updated regularly.[259] In the 1980s, Usenet groups greatly expanded the circle of fans online.[260] In the 1990s, the development of the World-Wide Web exploded the community of online fandom by orders of magnitude, with thousands and then millions of websites devoted to science fiction and related genres for all media.[255] Most such sites are relatively small, ephemeral, and/or narrowly focused,[261][262] though sites like SF Site and SFcrowsnest offer a broad range of references and reviews.[263][264]

The first science fiction fanzine, The Comet, was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago, Illinois.[265][266] Fanzine printing methods have changed over the decades, from the hectograph, the mimeograph, and the ditto machine, to modern photocopying.[267] Distribution volumes rarely justify the cost of commercial printing.[268] Contemporary fanzines are largely printed on computer printers or at local copy shops, or they may only be sent as email (termed "Ezines") or otherwise made available online (termed "webzines").[269] One of the best known fanzines today is Ansible, edited by David Langford, winner of numerous Hugo awards.[270][271] Other notable fanzines to win one or more Hugo awards include File 770, Mimosa, and Plokta.[272] Artists working for fanzines have frequently risen to prominence in the field, including Brad W. Foster, Teddy Harvia, and Joe Mayhew; the Hugos include a category for Best Fan Artists.[272]

Elements

Plaque at Riverside, Iowa to honor the "future birth" of Star Trek's James Kirk.

Science fiction elements can include, among others:

• Temporal settings in the future, or in alternative histories.[273]

• Spatial settings or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, in subterranean earth, or in parallel universes.[26]

• Aspects of biology in fiction such as aliens, mutants, and enhanced humans.[274][275]

• Predicted or speculative technology such as brain-computer interface, bio-engineering, superintelligent computers, robots, and ray guns and other advanced weapons.[274][276]

• Undiscovered scientific possibilities such as teleportation, time travel, and faster-than-light travel or communication.[277]

• New and different political and social systems and situations, including Utopian, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, or post-scarcity.[278]

• Future history and evolution of humans on Earth or on other planets.[279]

• Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, and telekinesis.[280]

International examples

• Afrofuturism

• Australian science fiction

• Bengali science fiction

• Black science fiction

• Brazilian science fiction

• Canadian science fiction

• Chinese science fiction

• Croatian science fiction

• Czech science fiction and fantasy

• French science fiction

• Japanese science fiction

• Norwegian science fiction

• Science fiction in Poland

• Romanian science fiction

• Russian science fiction and fantasy

• Serbian science fiction

• Spanish science fiction

• Yugoslav science fiction

Subgenres

See also: Outline of science fiction

• Anthropological science fiction

• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

• Biopunk

• Christian science fiction

• Climate fiction

• Comic science fiction

• Cyberpunk

• Dieselpunk

• Dying Earth

• Feminist science fiction

• Gothic science fiction

• Libertarian science fiction

• Military science fiction

• Mundane science fiction

• Planetary romance

• Social science fiction

• Solarpunk

• Space opera

• Space Western

• Steampunk

Related genres

Main article: Speculative fiction

• Alternate history

• Fantasy

• Historical fiction

• Horror fiction

• Mystery fiction

• Science fantasy

• Spy fiction

• Spy-Fi

• Superhero fiction

• Supernatural fiction

• Utopian and dystopian fiction

See also

• Science fiction portal

• Outline of science fiction

• History of science fiction

• Timeline of science fiction

• Fantastic art

• Fictional worlds

• Futures studies

• List of comic science fiction

• List of religious ideas in science fiction

• List of science fiction and fantasy artists

• List of science fiction authors

• List of science fiction films

• List of science fiction novels

• List of science fiction television programs

• List of science fiction themes

• List of science fiction universes

• Planets in science fiction

• Political ideas in science fiction

• Retrofuturism

• Robots in science fiction

• Science fiction comics

• Science fiction libraries and museums

• Science in science fiction

• Technology in science fiction

• Time travel in fiction

• Transhumanism