1976–1987: Early films and television series 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 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 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 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 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 a crossover storyline. The
Star Tours ride was opened at
Disney Parks in 1987 to commemorate the saga's 10th anniversary.
1987–1991: "The Dark Times" 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.
1991–1996: Thrawn novels and Dark Empire comics The lack of new
Star Wars material ended with the 1991 release of
Timothy Zahn's novel
Heir to the Empire. began what would become a large collection of works set before, between, and especially after 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". The
Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing 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. The comic launched months after 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 a year after
Return of the Jedi. 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 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:
1996–1999: Special Editions and Shadows of the Empire 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 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 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 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.
1999–2014: Prequel film trilogy and The Clone Wars Before 1999, the bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explored the time periods either after
Return of 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 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 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 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." 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. Lucasfilm's director of fan relations
Steve Sansweet clarified: In August 2005, Lucas said of the Expanded Universe: Regarding 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): •
G-canon was "
George Lucas canon": Episodes
I–VI (the released films at that time) overrode the lower levels of canonicity, even when referring to elements introduced in other media. In the words of Leland Chee: "George's view of the universe is his view. He's not beholden to what's gone before." •
D-canon was
Detours canon: Elements of the unreleased show
Detours, though primarily intended as a parody of the franchise, were to follow a serial storyline that existed in a low level of canonicity. •
N-canon was
Non-canon: "What if" stories (such as the first 20 issues of the
Star Wars Tales comic anthology),
crossover appearances (such as
Star Wars character appearances in
Soulcalibur IV), game statistics, and anything else directly contradicted by higher levels of canon. Among its members are Chee, Kiri Hart, and
Pablo Hidalgo. To prevent the planned sequel trilogy from being beholden to and restrained by the plotlines of the Expanded Universe works, the choice was made to discard that continuity. Chee said in a 2014
Twitter post that a "primary goal" of the story group would be to replace the previous hierarchical canon (of the Holocron) with one cohesive one. 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 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 the Essential Legends Collection for the franchise's 50th anniversary, starting with
Heir to the Empire,
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and
Shatterpoint.
2014–2019: Sequel trilogy and anthology films 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, the characters and events to which all other tales must align." 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 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 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. Since co-creating
The Clone Wars, Filoni has followed Lucas (who incorporated Expanded Universe elements into 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 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.
2019–present: The Mandalorian and other titles The Mandalorian, a post-
Return of the Jedi live-action series written by
Jon Favreau premiered in late 2019 on the Disney streaming service
Disney+. In early 2020, a final season of
The Clone Wars animated series debuted on the streaming service. 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 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. ==
Legends fictional timeline ==