I’ve been reading “Star Wars” novels for a veeeeery long time. Admittedly, most were by Timothy Zahn, and admittedly, some were better than others, but at the end, all of them, the good and the bad, have done nothing but increase my love for the “Star Wars” universe. I read about the trials Luke Skywalker had to go through in order to rebuild his Jedi Academy, about his unlikely marriage to Mara Jade and about the attack of the Yuuzhan Vong. True, I also read some ridiculous stuff such as how the Emperor transferred his consciousness into a clone body and seduced Luke to the dark side or something (I don’t know, I generally try to keep the bad stories to the back of my mind), but hey, nothing good is good all the time. Even today, I continue reading “Star Wars” books with joy.
Except there’s one problem. None of them even matter anymore.
Not too long after Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion, they announced that the entire Expanded Universe – all the books, all the games, all the audioplays and comics, will no longer be considered canon within the new “Star Wars” universe. And don’t get me wrong, I understand that decision, I really do. The “Star Wars” canon is chock-full of materials, starting at millions of years before “A New Hope” and ending at hundreds of years afterwards. Disney wants to make a whole lot of movies – three more episodes and at least three side stories (the first of which, “Rogue One”, will be coming out this December). And if they want to retain the creative freedom to do things their way and still keep fans guessing and surprised, then they have no choice but to eliminate the old Expanded Universe and start fresh. I understand that, and honestly, I probably would’ve done the same.
What I don’t understand is why the entire Expanded Universe had to go. I mean, come on, the “Knights of the Old Republic” games and the “Star Wars: The Old Republic” MMO take place in the “Star Wars” universe’s distant past! Why did they have to get rid of that? Even if Disney wanted to set a movie in the time of the Old Republic (which I sincerely doubt they do), they could’ve easily done so without contradicting the games! Or what about “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed”, which was one of the biggest “Star Wars” projects ever with a book, comic and two games? Everyone liked the story (well, at least that of the first game), and elements from it have even been made canon within the new TV show “Star Wars: Rebels”, so why not just go out and make it canon? It doesn’t interfere with anything! Hell, the book I’m reading right now, “Maul: Lockdown”, takes place way before “Episode I” and features a character that is actually very prominent in the new canon, Darth Maul. Making the book canon would’ve given him some history, which he doesn’t really have at the moment.
Just because I understand this decision doesn’t mean I approve of how it’s enforced. I think that a team at Disney should’ve seriously sat down, evaluated all the major stories and, maybe with the help of the fans, cherry-picked what is canon and what isn’t. Sure, 100% of the material set after Episode VI should be removed, but there were some really awesome things from before that could’ve been salvaged. At the very least the aforementioned “Star Wars: Rebels” seems to be nodding a lot to the Expanded Universe, but nods and canon are two entirely different things.