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56-564: With the exception of the animated The Clone Wars TV series , non-film material produced prior to April 2014 was collectively known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe ( EU ). Lucasfilm, now under Disney, later rebranded the Expanded Universe as Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canonical to the franchise. Most works produced after April 25, 2014 are part of the official canon as defined by Lucasfilm, although

112-592: A television series of the same name (2008–2020). These reveal that Anakin had a Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano , during this period. Various characters seen only briefly in the films or in other spin-off material are featured in more depth. At this time, Lucas denied any plans to ever make a Star Wars sequel trilogy . As of 2004, over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published, including novels, comics, non-fiction, and magazines. Then-president of Lucas Licensing, Howard Roffman, estimated that there were more than 65 million Star Wars books in print. He said, "The books are

168-449: A billboard pleading for Lucasfilm to continue the original non-canonical Expanded Universe separately from the canon. Rebels supervising director Dave Filoni reintroduced popular Legends character Thrawn into the canon in the 2016 third season of Rebels . Timothy Zahn was hired to write new canonical novels about the character. Since co-creating The Clone Wars , Filoni has followed Lucas (who incorporated Expanded Universe elements into

224-765: A blend of fan and canon . Similarly, the term " headcanon " is used to describe a fan's personal interpretation of a fictional universe. Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn (born 1951 or 1952) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy . He is known best for his prolific collection of Star Wars books , chiefly the Thrawn trilogy , and has published several other series of sci-fi and fantasy novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction. Zahn grew up in Lombard, Illinois , and attended Glenbard East High School in Lombard. He has been

280-414: A crossover storyline. The Star Tours ride was opened at Disney Parks in 1987 to commemorate the saga's 10th anniversary. Following the series' 10th anniversary, the release of Star Wars spin-off media was largely halted. In 1987, the fan newsletter Bantha Tracks was absorbed by the official Lucasfilm magazine, which focused on the company's projects outside of Star Wars . Some fans feared that

336-577: A fan of sci-fi since he was a child. He attended Michigan State University , before working towards a doctorate in physics at the University of Illinois . Zahn's novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo Award . He is the author of the Blackcollar trilogy and the Cobra series (nine novels so far), fourteen Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including thirteen novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn :

392-554: A handful of Legends media has still been released after said date. The first Star Wars spinoff material was Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976), the novelization of the 1977 film. Lucas later commissioned Alan Dean Foster , who ghostwrote the novelization, to write a sequel, which resulted in Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978). Lucas originally intended to use this as

448-630: A new Star Wars novel trilogy. At the time, Zahn was writing Heir to the Empire (1991), the first book in what became known as the Thrawn trilogy, and West End in turn released sourcebooks from 1992–1994 based on Zahn's three novels. The Thrawn trilogy marked a revival in the fortunes of the Star Wars franchise, bringing it widespread attention for the first time in years; all three Thrawn trilogy novels made The New York Times Best Seller list , and set

504-486: A way of extending the fantasy of Star Wars . The movies have had a really profound effect on a couple of generations. Star Wars has become a cultural touchpoint, and our fans are avidly interested in exploring more stories." Originally, Lucasfilm tracked the narrative content of the Expanded Universe in story bibles , alongside official reference books such as A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (1984/1994) and

560-409: A work of fiction is "the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative; [especially] those created by the original author or developer of the world". Canon is contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction and other derivative works . When there are multiple "official" works or original media, what material

616-629: A year after Return of the Jedi . The Truce at Bakura (1993) depicts the immediate aftermath of the aforementioned film. In 1993, Dark Horse published Tales of the Jedi , expanding the fictional universe to the time of the Old Republic , approximately 4,000 years before the films. Later, the series spawned the Knights of the Old Republic computer roleplaying games, which led to many new productions set during

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672-431: Is also no consensus regarding who has the authority to decide what is or isn't canonical, with copyright holders usually declaring themselves the authorities when they want to erase or retcon materials that were approved by the setting's original creator (with Star Wars again being an example). The definition of canon is of particular importance with regard to reboots or re-imaginings of established franchises, such as

728-666: Is always room for variation. In August 2005, Lucas said of the Expanded Universe: I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world ... But I do try to keep it consistent ... if I come up with a name or something else, I look it up and see if it has already been used. When I said [other people] could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that ... we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions. Regarding

784-435: Is canonical can be unclear. This is resolved either by explicitly excluding certain media from the status of canon (as in the case of Star Trek and Star Wars ); by assigning different levels of canonicity to different media; by considering different but licensed media treatments official and equally canonical to the series timeline within their own continuities ' universe, but not across them; or not resolved at all. There

840-511: Is common that the original writer does not decide what is canon. In literature, the estate of H. G. Wells authorised sequels by Stephen Baxter , The Massacre of Mankind (2017) and The Time Ships (1995). Scarlett was a 1991 sequel to Gone with the Wind authorised by the estate. In 2010, the Conan Doyle estate authorised Young Sherlock Holmes and The House of Silk . Sequels to

896-437: Is to present a continuous and unified history of the Star Wars galaxy, insofar as that history does not conflict with, or undermine the meaning of Mr. Lucas's Star Wars saga of films and screenplays." Lucasfilm's director of fan relations Steve Sansweet clarified: When it comes to absolute canon, the real story of Star Wars , you must turn to the films themselves—and only the films. Even novelizations are interpretations of

952-644: The Republic comic book series, appears in Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002). The 2003 animated series Clone Wars and various spin-off books, comics, and video games explore the titular conflict in more detail leading up to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Ahead of the film's release, Lucas announced a 3D "continuation" of Clone Wars , which was released as the animated film The Clone Wars (2008) and

1008-767: The Star Wars Encyclopedia (1998). In 2000, LucasArts lead tester Leland Chee was hired as Continuity Database Administrator for Lucas Licensing, and developed a database of franchise continuity based in part on 1998's encyclopedic Star Wars: Behind the Magic CD-ROM . The database came to be known as the Holocron , a term used within the Star Wars universe for "ancient repositories of knowledge and wisdom". The Holocron consists of over 55,000 entries for franchise characters, locations, species, and vehicles. Lucas Licensing's managing editor Sue Rostoni said in 2001, "Our goal

1064-508: The Thrawn trilogy , the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound Flight , Choices of One , Thrawn , Thrawn: Alliances , Thrawn: Treason , and the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy. Lucasfilm at times used some of the more detailed Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplements from West End Games as references, and West End sent boxes of their sourcebooks to Zahn when he started work on

1120-498: The Berne Convention which introduced author's rights . However, sometimes in literature, original writers have not approved works as canon, but original publishers or literary estates of original writers posthumously approve subsequent works as canon, such as The Royal Book of Oz (1921) (by original publisher), Porto Bello Gold (1924) (by estate), and Heidi Grows Up (1938) (by estate). In film and television it

1176-711: The Star Trek canon, but the site notes that elements from these sources have been subsequently introduced into the television series, and says that "canon is not something set in stone". During George Lucas 's time with the franchise, the Star Wars canon was divided into discrete tiers that incorporated the Expanded Universe (EU), with continuity tracked by Lucasfilm creative executive Leland Chee . Higher-tier and newer material abrogated lower-tier and older material in case of contradiction. The live-action theatrical films,

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1232-558: The Star Trek remake (2009) , because of the ways in which it influences the viewer experience. The official Star Trek website describes the Star Trek canon as "the events that take place within the episodes and movies", referring to the live-action television series and films , with Star Trek: The Animated Series having long existed in a nebulous gray area of canonicity . Events, characters, and storylines from tie-in novels, comic books, and video games are explicitly excluded from

1288-505: The Star Wars franchise. In The Secret History of Star Wars , Michael Kaminski suggests this renewed interest was a factor in Lucas's decision to create the prequel trilogy . Around this same time, the comics license was transferred to Dark Horse Comics , who launched a number of series set after the original film trilogy, including the popular Dark Empire sequence (1991–1995) by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy . The comic launched months after

1344-489: The Thrawn trilogy, made its film debut in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi , before being featured more heavily in the prequel trilogy. An eponymous comic book series , later subtitled Republic , launched in 1998 and introduced Ki-Adi-Mundi ahead of his appearance in the films. In 1999, Star Wars book publishing moved from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey Books . A new series set between 25 and 30 years after

1400-420: The 2008 The Clone Wars TV series and its debut film , and statements by Lucas himself were at the top of this hierarchy; such works invariably superseded EU material in case of contradiction. The EU itself was further divided into several descending levels of continuity. After Disney 's acquisition of the franchise, Lucasfilm designated all Expanded Universe material published before 25 April 2014 (other than

1456-726: The Disney streaming service Disney+ . In early 2020, a final season of The Clone Wars animated series debuted on the streaming service. In February 2020, it was announced that a new line of books and comics, labeled The High Republic , would begin publishing starting in August. The line takes place 200 years prior to the events of The Phantom Menace and will not overlap any films or series currently planned for production. In December 2020, multiple live-action series were announced for Disney+, including Obi-Wan Kenobi , Andor , Lando , three Mandalorian spin-offs, and The Acolyte (set during

1512-536: The Essential Legends Collection for the franchise's 50th anniversary, starting with Heir to the Empire , Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and Shatterpoint . In its 2014 announcement, Lucasfilm explained that the only preexisting works to be considered canonical within the franchise would be the primary episodic films and the 2008 The Clone Wars film and TV series. The announcement called these works "the immovable objects of Star Wars history,

1568-620: The High Republic). On April 2, 2021, several legacy Star Wars films and series were added to Disney+. The Bad Batch debuted on May 4. Multiple comics relaunched in 2020, moving to the era between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi . The Star Wars Legends fictional universe spans multiple eras. The names, symbols, and dates of the publishing eras were first introduced in October 2000 and were refined up to February 2015: Citations Canon (fiction) The canon of

1624-452: The Holocron database in 2012, Chee said: "What sets Star Wars apart from other franchises is that we develop a singular continuity across all forms of media, whether it be the films, TV series, video games, novels and comics, and the Holocron is a key component to Lucasfilm being able to do this." The Holocron was divided into five levels of canon (in order of precedence): In October 30, 2012,

1680-588: The Jedi or long before A New Hope ( e.g. the Tales of the Jedi series). The time period shortly before the original trilogy (including the rise of the Galactic Empire and the personal histories of Anakin Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine ) was left open for Lucas to develop in the form of a prequel trilogy, which began with Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999). The character Aayla Secura , introduced in 2000 in

1736-541: The Jedi , was part of a multimedia campaign that also included a comic book series and video game . The multimedia project was largely meant to reinvigorate the franchise ahead of the prequel trilogy, along with Lucas's 1997 Special Editions of the original trilogy. Lucas incorporated elements of the Expanded Universe into the Special Editions; for example, Coruscant , the New Republic capital planet created by Zahn in

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1792-523: The Old Republic era, such as the Bane Trilogy and the Knights of the Old Republic comic line. In 1994, Lucas Licensing's Allan Kausch and Sue Rostoni discussed the relationship between Lucas' creations and the derivative works by other authors: Gospel, or canon as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelizations. These works spin out of George Lucas' original stories,

1848-462: The Special Editions, prequels, and The Clone Wars ) in incorporating multiple spin-off elements into his series. Some cancelled The Clone Wars episodes were adapted into books and comics in The Clone Wars Legacy multimedia project. After The Force Awakens , multiple films were released, including the anthology films Rogue One (2016) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), as well as

1904-489: The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for US$ 4.06 billion (equivalent to about US$ 5.39B in 2023 due to inflation). Subsequently, Lucasfilm formed the "Lucasfilm Story Group", which was established to keep track of and define the canon and unify the films, comics, and other media. Among its members are Chee, Kiri Hart, and Pablo Hidalgo . To prevent the planned sequel trilogy from being beholden to and restrained by

1960-668: The basis for a potential low-budget sequel to Star Wars , but when it became one of the most successful films of all time, Lucas decided to write his own story for the film sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). While this was in production, Lucas approved the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), with which he had limited involvement. Running from April 1977 to May 1986, the Star Wars comic book series from Marvel Comics met with such strong sales that former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter credited it with saving Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. The series became one of

2016-504: The characters and events to which all other tales must align." It was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it. The first new canonical novel was A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller , published in September 2014, acting as a prologue to the animated television series Star Wars Rebels , which

2072-551: The concept for the Doctor Who television series or its spin-offs . The television series The Simpsons has as an example of non-canonical material, the Treehouse of Horror episodes, a series of Halloween-themed specials with several stories that take place outside the show's normal continuity Several anime television series adapted from manga stories count with some extra episodes with original stories that are not part of

2128-424: The film, and while they are largely true to George Lucas' vision (he works quite closely with the novel authors), the method in which they are written does allow for some minor differences ... The further one branches away from the movies, the more interpretation and speculation come into play. LucasBooks works diligently to keep the continuing Star Wars expanded universe cohesive and uniform, but stylistically, there

2184-437: The first Thrawn novel and was a sequel to those novels; it notably resurrected the film characters Emperor Palpatine and Boba Fett . Zahn was critical of the concept of resurrecting Emperor Palpatine through cloned bodies, feeling it undermined and contradicted the meaning of the ending of Return of the Jedi . The Jedi Prince series of young-reader novels, released between 1992 and 1993, depicts Luke, Leia, and Han about

2240-529: The first six theatrical films and the 2008 The Clone Wars film and TV series) as the non-canonical "Legends" continuity. Material released since this announcement is a separate canonical timeline from the original George Lucas Canon, with all narrative development overseen by the Lucasfilm Story Group. The makers of Doctor Who have generally avoided making pronouncements about canonicity, with Russell T Davies explaining that he does not think about

2296-427: The franchise had come to an end, and the period between 1987 and 1991 has been called the "Dark Times." There were some bright spots in this era, however. In 1987, West End Games began publishing Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game , and the subsequent ancillary role-playing game material such as sourcebooks, gamebooks, and adventure modules. These have been called "the first publications to expand greatly beyond what

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2352-419: The industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. An adaptation of the third theatrical film, Return of the Jedi , was released as a separate four-issue limited series (1983–1984). Two novel trilogies with original storylines were written, The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley (1979–1980), and 1983's The Adventures of Lando Calrissian by L. Neil Smith . Daley also wrote radio dramatizations of

2408-488: The original films, The New Jedi Order (1999–2003), was written by multiple authors and introduced a new threat: the Yuuzhan Vong , a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The first novel in the series, R. A. Salvatore 's Vector Prime , killed off popular character Chewbacca . Before 1999, the bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explored the time periods either after Return of

2464-405: The original films. StarWars.com wrote in 2014 that the novel "jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe". It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade , and was followed by the sequels Dark Force Rising (1992) and The Last Command (1993). The Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing

2520-407: The original manga, often being referred to as "filler episodes," being outside of the canon of their source material. The canonical status of some works by the original writer but not the same publisher, such as " The Field Bazaar ", may be debated. This is because copyright used to be exercised by the publisher of the work of literature rather than the author. Campaigning by Victor Hugo led to

2576-511: The original trilogy, which aired in 1981, 1983, and 1996. The first Star Wars electronic game was released in 1979 by Kenner , followed by a handful of Atari and Parker Brothers video games in the early 1980s, mainly adaptations of film scenes. Two spin-off television films focusing on the life of the Ewoks , introduced in Return of the Jedi , aired in 1984 and 1985. The furry creatures were also

2632-433: The plotlines of the Expanded Universe works, the choice was made to discard that continuity. On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canonical to the franchise. The company's focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. Chee said in a 2014 Twitter post that a "primary goal" of the story group would be to replace

2688-476: The previous hierarchical canon (of the Holocron) with one cohesive one. However, the final season of The Clone Wars , which was released in 2020, contradicted aspects of the 2016 canon novel Ahsoka . The next year, The Clone Wars spin-off series The Bad Batch contradicted canon elements of the 2015 Kanan comic book series. The Bad Batch executive producer Jennifer Corbett explained that "Everything we did

2744-443: The rest are written by other writers. However, between us, we've read everything, and much of it is taken into account in the overall continuity. The entire catalog of published works comprises a vast history—with many off-shoots, variations and tangents—like any other well-developed mythology. The 1996 Steve Perry novel Shadows of the Empire , set in the as-yet-unexplored time period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of

2800-468: The second and third sequel trilogy films, The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Dozens of novels, comics published by Marvel and IDW , and games like Battlefront II (2017) were released. Additionally, the animated series Resistance , set in the sequel trilogy era, premiered in late 2018 and ran until early 2020. The Mandalorian , a post- Return of the Jedi live-action series written by Jon Favreau premiered in late 2019 on

2856-731: The stage and tone for most of the franchise's expanded universe content. Zahn also wrote the young adult Dragonback series and the Conquerors trilogy . In 2014 Zahn collaborated with David Weber on the Manticore Ascendant series set within the Honorverse . In 2023, Dave Filoni confirmed during the Star Wars Celebration Europe that Zahn served as a creative consultant for the Disney+ miniseries Ahsoka in order to assist

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2912-697: The stories by P G Wodehouse about the butler Jeeves were sanctioned by Wodehouse's estate for Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (2013) by Sebastian Faulks and Jeeves and the King of Clubs (2018) by Ben Schott . The Monogram Murders (2014) by Sophie Hannah is a sequel to Hercule Poirot novels authorised by the Agatha Christie estate. Fan fiction is almost never regarded as canonical. However, certain ideas may become influential or widely accepted within fan communities, who refer to such ideas as " fanon ",

2968-416: The subject of an American/Canadian animated television series produced by Nelvana , which ran for two seasons between 1985 and 1986. A sister series, Droids , features the further adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO . In 1985, Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint published a bi-monthly Ewoks tie-in comic, which ran for two years, and in 1986, published an eight-issue Droids series. The two series featured

3024-499: Was for a reason and it might not match 100% but it's sort of just wanting to honor what existed but also give another take on it in this story." In 2019, Marvel published a one-issue continuation of its 1977 Star Wars comic series for the company's 80th anniversary, making it the first new story to be published in the Legends continuity. In 2021, Del Rey Books announced it would be republishing several popular Legends novels as part of

3080-407: Was known from the vintage era of the movies," and would serve as a resource for a number of franchise novelists. The lack of new Star Wars material ended with the 1991 release of Timothy Zahn 's novel Heir to the Empire . Heir to the Empire , which reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list , began what would become a large collection of works set before, between, and especially after

3136-570: Was released a month later. Marvel began publishing new Star Wars comic book series in January 2015, and the Journey to Star Wars publishing initiative included books and comics tying in to the sequel trilogy films. The first sequel trilogy film, The Force Awakens , was released in December 2015. There was some minor fan backlash against the restructured canon, with one group successfully campaigning to buy

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