Star Wars in other media


Star Wars has been expanded to other media since the eponymous 1977 film, including many books, comic books, and video games, as well as other forms such as audio dramas. Licensed and moderated by Lucasfilm, these derivative works have been produced concurrently with, between, and after the original, prequel, and sequel trilogies, as well as the spin-off films and television series.
Star Wars creator George Lucas reserved the right to draw from and contradict spin-off media in his own works. Non-film material produced before 2014, with the exception of the animated The Clone Wars TV series, was collectively known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe. On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm—which had been acquired by Disney—renamed the Expanded Universe Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canonical to the franchise. Since then, most but not all new Star Wars works have been part of the official Lucasfilm canon.

Publication history

1976–1987: Early films and television series

The first Star Wars spinoff material was Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, 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. 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. While this was in production, Lucas approved the Star Wars Holiday Special, 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.
Two novel trilogies with original storylines were written, The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, 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. Some fans feared that 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 was known from the vintage era of the movies," and would serve as a resource for a number of franchise novelists.

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. 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 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 and The Last Command. 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.
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 by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy. 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. The Truce at Bakura 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 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, 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. The time period shortly before the original trilogy was left open for Lucas to develop in the form of a prequel trilogy, which began with Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
The character Aayla Secura, introduced in 2000 in the Republic comic book series, appears in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. 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. Ahead of the film's release, Lucas announced a 3D "continuation" of Clone Wars, which was released as the animated film The Clone Wars and a television series of the same name. 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."

Holocron database and canonicity

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 and the Star Wars Encyclopedia. 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. 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 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:
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 :
  • G-canon was "George Lucas canon": Episodes I–VI 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."
  • T-canon was Television canon: The canonicity level comprising The Clone Wars, which Lucas co-created.
  • was Continuity canon: Most of the material from the Expanded Universe including books, comics, and video games. The creation of stories that introduced radical changes in the continuity, like The Force Unleashed video game, required Lucas's approval, and he spent hours explaining the character relationships to the developers.
  • S-canon was Secondary canon: Any element introduced in Continuity canon that was contradicted by other material. The Holiday Special is an example, except for elements referenced in higher levels of canon.
  • 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, crossover appearances, game statistics, and anything else directly contradicted by higher levels of canon.