Let's start a new Star Wars canon! First of course we have to start with what is a Star Wars canon? We had Star Wars (1977) which introduced our heroes; Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), then there was the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), Empire Strikes Back (1980) introducing Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), and then Return of the Jedi (1983). Classic films from writer/director, George Lucas. In 1978, there was the novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster, which had Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa searching for the Kaiburr crystal.
A year later, there was Han Solo at Stars’ End (1979), and then Han Solo’s Revenge by Brian Daley. The last novel, Han Solo and the Lost Legacy (1980), finished what would be later called the Han Solo Adventures in its own part of the Star Wars Galaxy, the Corporate Sector. It introduced vibroblades. The popular Lando Calrissian had his own series that was called Lando Calrissian Adventures with Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu (1983), Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon (1983), and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka (1983), all by L. Neil Smith.
The Star Wars material from the books and movies was so hefty it was compiled by Raymond L. Velasco into the 215 page A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (1984). There was also spin off like the television movie, The Ewok Adventure (1984)! Later retitled, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure when it was released in theaters outside of the US. The Star Wars universe grew a bit more with the release of the Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (1987) by Greg Costikyan for West End Games.
The Star Wars Sourcebook (1987) by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith started to detail the Star Wars Galaxy with aliens named like Twi’leks, the Inquisitors, and the material from Splinter, Han Solo, and the Lando Calrissian books. The Galaxy Guides detailed the individual movies and also alien races. In 1994, the canon was established in the “Star Wars Publication Timeline” article by Allan Kausch in Star Wars Insider #23. Bill Slavicsek followed the canon publishing the second edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (1994).
The role-playing game material was given to sci fi author, Timothy Zahn, who explored new parts of the Star Wars Galaxy starting with Heir to the Empire (1991)! Zahn introduced Coruscant, which Lucas had intended to be called Had Abaddon, the New Republic, and of course Grand Admiral Thrawn! Star Wars didn’t end with Return of the Jedi. Zahn followed Heir with Dark Force Rising (1992), and The Last Command (1993) in what became known as the Thrawn Trilogy.
The only major character that has not entered the Star Wars Galaxy from the trilogy now is Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand! This led to a bookshelf worth of novels that followed our heroes in further threats to the galaxy. Also, the Young Jedi Knights young adult series starting with Heirs of the Force (1995) by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta that followed Jacen and Jaina, the Jedi twins of Han and Leia! It is interesting to see that Hera Syndulla’s son is named Jacen. This became known as the Expanded Universe including the novels, comic books, and video games.
It was all broken up into G-canon, th George Lucas Canon which was strictly the films. C-canon, continuity, which was the Expanded Universe material. In 1995, the game company, Decipher produced the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. The cards detailed characters, aliens, and devices in almost every frame of the films! In 1997, for the 20th anniversary, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope was released as a Special Edition with Star new material to familar movies.
It is interesting to see the Expanded Universe enter the official canon with the first Prequel movie, The Phantom Menace (1999). Then, Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2002) concluded the Prequel Trilogy. This time, every character, alien, and minutae of the films was identified in countless reference books. Now there was new films, more of the galaxy to inspire stories, and of course adding to the Expanded Universe. Still, the reference material all seemed to wind down with the Prequels, the animated short series, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005) by Genndy Tartakovsky, and then, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
The movie had Lucas as executive producer along with Dave Filoni. It was the debut of Anakin Skywalker's apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. This led to the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series that began with “Ambush” (2008) and lasted five seasons until 2012. The sixth season, called The Lost Missions, was released by Netflix in 2014. In 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and in 2014, Lucasfilm classified the Expanded Universe as Legends. The ending of Clone Wars led to a television movie, Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion (2014) that revived the Star Wars Galaxy. Star Wars: Rebels began as a series on Disney XD with “The Machine in the Ghost” (2014).
The Lucasfilm Story Group was formed to define the canon for the supposed Sequel Trilogy with The Force Awakens (2015). Then, in season five of Star Wars: Rebels, Grand Admiral Thrawn debuted in “Hera’s Heroes” (2016). The other trilogy finished with The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). It seemed to abandon the Prequel Trilogy and even the Original Trilogy. In 2019, there was a new hope with the debut of The Mandalorian from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni starting wtih “Chapter 1: The Mandalorian.” It appeared that the direction of this series was not tied to the Sequel Trilogy and instead connected to the Prequel and Original Trilogies.
In 2020, the seventh and final season of the Clone Wars wrapped up the show and introduced Clone Force-99 in “The Bad Batch” (2020). The first season of The Bad Batch started with “Aftermath” (2021). Boba Fett had survived the Sarlaac Pit in RotJ to show up in The Mandalorian season two premiere, “Chapter 9: The Marshal” (2020). Another character was also connected to an earlier Star Wars story, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), in “Chapter 13: The Jedi” (2020). This also introduced Morgan Elspeth and a hint of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
We found how how Boba Fett recovered in The Book of Boba Fett’s premiere, “Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land” (2021). Obi-Wan Kenobi was another series, executive produced by Deborah Chow, starting with “Part 1” (2022). Ahsoka was the spin-off that continued the story of Ahsoka Tano in this year’s “Part One: Master and Apprentice.” This is all leading to a promised movie by Dave Filoni that will wrap up the series. So the Sequel Trilogy which seems apart from the movie would be Disney Canon, DC. For example, Force Awakens would be DC-FA.
Model of Galaxy’s Edge at the D23 Expo, 2017, sometimes fantasy becomes real, author’s photo.
The next level is Extended Canon, EC, which would be the Ewok movies, the “Legends” novels and comics, and characters in the Sequel Trilogy, but not their stories in Galaxy’s Edge. The park expansion opened at Disneyland in 2019. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance would be EC-GER. The opening date of the attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was in 2019. The introduction of Teek (Niki Botelho) was in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, EC-EW2. It is also introduced the beast of burden Blurrg and retroactively made the witch Charal (Sian Phillips), a Nightsister. Heir to the Empire would be EC-TT1 (Thrawn Trilogy). The third level of the new canon is FC (Favreau/Filoni Canon) which is Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka.
The Mandalorian episode where Cobb Vanth appeared, “The Marshal” is FC-M2/1. The season followed by a slash and the episode. His true introduction is in the novel, Aftermath (2015), by Chuck Wendig; EC-A1. Obi-Wan first encounters Tala (Indira Varma) in “Part III” (2022); FC-OB1/3. The Star Wars: Rebels episode that had Ahsoka facing Darth Vader, "Twilight of the Apprentice” (2016); FC-R2/21-22. The highest level is LC (Lucas Canon) which is the Original, Prequel Trilogies, and Clone Wars. So the first 1977 movie is LC-OT4. A kinda droid name. The Clone Wars film? LC-CW0. The "Overlords" (2011) episode introducing The Ones; LC-CW3/15, Season 3, episode 15. This is just a fun, new way to look at Star Wars with a way to identify seasons and episodes.
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