In a news post on the official Star Wars site, Lucasfilm has announced that the Expanded Universe – the books, comics and video games that have been produced in the past 35 years – are no longer part of the official Star Wars canon.
While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU.
Now it’s official: The six films have been set as the canon, with upcoming films to further expand on the story’s universe.
Lucasfilm has put together a team to develop and oversee the story as the franchise progresses forward. “We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. “We’re set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before.”
In order to give filmmakers maximum creative input and to keep the story fresh and interesting for audiences, installments VII-IX of the film series will not tell the same story presented in the post-Return of the Jedi universe. Fans who had hoped for a film version of Timothy Zahn’s legendary Heir to the Empire trilogy – featuring the incomparable Grand Admiral Thrawn, a villain of quite some prominence in the EU – are sure to be disappointed by this news.
However, Lucasfilm assures us that the EU will not be completely discarded. Certain small aspects of the EU will be featured in future Star Wars media, such as the upcoming Star Wars Rebels animated series. The first novel of the new canon has been announced as a prequel to Rebels.
What’s happening to all the old EU stuff? Don’t worry; it’ll stay in print, under a new “Legends” banner (see below).
By issuing this announcement, Lucasfilm is taking an active and involved role in creating a new and consistent Star Wars expanded universe. The possibilities are truly exciting.
However, the EU as we know it has existed for 35 years.To dismiss so much artistic achievement – the aforementioned Heir to the Empire trilogy, the Knights of the Old Republic video games (undisputed classics of gaming) and a host of other important novels/games/comics – must feel like a slap in the face to the creators and fans of these works. It also means we’ll never get to see the Hutts build a Death Star (as in Kevin J. Anderson’s 1995 novel Darksaber).
It seems there is not much to do but look to the future of that galaxy far, far away and hope.
Editorial Commentary – James Huneycutt
I am of two minds about this, as I often find myself about decisions motivated by big business that directly impact the things I hold near and dear to my heart. After several days’ toying around with this news, three distinct conclusions have sprung to mind.
Firstly, as upsetting as this maneuver is, a new film trilogy made it inevitable. JJ Abrams made it clear in no uncertain terms that if he was to take the helm of the Star Wars franchise, it would be with creative freedom and as little in the way of oversight as Lucasfilm allowed. Episodes VII-IX must have creative license to take the franchise in their own direction. A series of novels and games and media tie-ins with far less widespread public familiarity and penetration than Episodes I-VI could not be given priority over another set of films with almost unparalleled reach and audience.
Secondly, this isn’t the first time Expanded Universe content has been declared out of canon. Among major examples:
- R.A. Salvatore’s Vector Prime created quite a stir among fans and raised the first major debate on Star War canon when it established the death of fan-favorite Chewbacca – a public response that resulted in several interviews with Lucasfilm executives that drew the first line between the different levels of proper Star Wars Canon and Expanded Universe Canon, and in fact established several fairly rigid levels of canonical priority.
- Similarly, Episode II established an origin story for Boba Fett that directly contradicted the Expanded Universe stories such as Tales of the Bounty Hunters and the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy – some of which incidentally had directly contradicted each other.
- The Clone Wars were described in some detail in Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy – widely considered to be the finest of the Expanded Universe novels – and differed widely from Episode II-III storylines.
George Lucas has never shied away from declaring that there is one official canon line, and it is his – but he also doesn’t seem to mind cashing the royalty checks gained from non-canonical works. This declaration isn’t the first time this sort of thing has been done, and simply shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given Lucasfilm’s previous attitude towards EU content. The EU hasn’t ever really been official canon, so an outright declaration that it isn’t shouldn’t be surprising or devastating.
Finally and most importantly, one wonders if this sort of thing should carry any great weight with the faithful. The recent CGI series The Clone Wars draws very heavily from the expanded universe content and is considered canonical – so how binding and serious can this statement actually be?
Jar Jar Binks – widely considered to be the single worst thing that has happened to the Star Wars universe since The Holiday Special – is absolutely canon. So how much weight should an actual fan of the franchise give the ‘Official Star Wars Canon’? Brilliant Expanded Universe novels such as Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy, Wolverton’s The Courtship of Princess Leia and Perry’s Shadows of the Empire all carry greater artistic and narrative weight than the canonical prequel films.
I understand the instinctual response of offense and irritation given by this announcement, but being labeled official Star Wars canon is not necessarily a badge of honor.