Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm, Star Wars has gone through a massive overhaul. The entire expanded universe, which consisted of hundreds of stories, many of which have long been through of as canon, was obliterated. But, in their defense, it makes sense. How could they have continued the Star Wars saga with so much material already out there? It would have been impossible, nothing would have made any sense.
This video does a fantastic job of clearing up the confusion, telling us what is still part of the official Star Wars timeline, and what has just fallen into “legend”.
So what does remain canon?
- All six movies
- The Clone Wars animated TV series
- Star Wars Rebels
- All new comics published under Marvel
- All new and upcoming novels and movies
That is still a lot of material to work with. The Clone Wars takes place between episodes II and III, and Rebels taking place between III and IV. Now, unfortunately, a lot of the expanded universe material was significantly better than the prequel trilogy, and to add insult to injury, George Lucas has stated that he has no interest in the expanded universe, has never read any of it, and considers it all in a sort of parallel universe.
But, then again, a few expanded universe creations did leak into the prequel trilogy, such as places and characters, so perhaps it’ll happen again with the new trilogy.
Getting back to my previous statement about material falling into “legend”: that is how Disney is dealing with all expanded universe material such as comics, books, and video games; they are being labeled as “legends”. This isn’t the worst thing that could have happened, I mean Disney could have really scrapped everything, and made it all disappear, but instead they are actively making them available for purchase, with the “legend” banner across it.
All in all, i’d say Disney is doing a good job of not upsetting too many people. They had a lot of material to deal with, and their path does seem to be the least confusing, keeping it accessible for most people.
The video does a great job of clearing up the Star Wars canon, and is worth a watch to all curious fans.
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