December 2015 brings us a new chapter in the Star Wars saga with The Force Awakens. While some of us are optimistic about it, there are still a lot who are still feeling let down by the Prequel Trilogy. Others are cautious due to Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilms, and some are hesitant because of J.J. Abrams writing and directing it after how the recent Star Trek movies turned out (an opinion I don’t share.) Of course, the thing that has most of the hardcore Star Wars fanbase upset is the fact to have received an Episode 7, the original Expanded Universe had to be ignored.
Now, I may not be a real big Star Wars fan, but I still considered the Expanded Universe (or “EU” for short) to have been the definitive Star Wars universe. There wasn’t much to the main universe for quite some time – three official movies, two Ewok spin-off films, a couple of animated series, and a Christmas Special that most prefer to never have happened. Compared to other major Sci-Fi franchises, the Star Wars Universe seemed rather small. The stories created through the EU helped tell what happened after Return of the Jedi, with the rebuilding of the Republic, dealing with the remnants of the Empire, and restoration of the Jedi Order. Some stories even fleshed out many characters, further exploring Han Solo and Lando Calrissian’s history together, and made the Emperor into a (very slightly) well-intentioned extremist.
The EU was for the longest time treated as canon not only by the fanbase but also by Lucasfilms themselves… or so it seemed. While there was a lot of control over what could and couldn’t be in the EU, it did seem like George Lucas himself wasn’t exactly fond of it, most likely since he didn’t write most of it. Much to fans’ chagrin, the people at LucasFilms ultimately decided in 2014 to make the EU into an alternate universe referred to as Star Wars Legends and start fresh. This disappointed me since I had hoped they would have gone the DC route and adapted various stories into animated films.
Despite this decision, I can understand the logic behind it. The EU had grown quite vast, covering from several of decades to more than a thousand years of history. Trying to write a movie into this universe could be tricky, as the writers would have to try to avoid contradicting anything. Casual viewers may also be at a disadvantage with having to know characters or events from the EU that may play major roles in the movie.
While the old EU may have been shunted off into an alternate universe, it may not be entirely gone. A new EU has begun to fill the void, and I imagine a lot of these writers were fans of the old EU. Some have even managed to slip a few references to the old EU into the new stories. While I do feel the loss of Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn is rather unfortunate, there’s hope they may still find their way into this new universe.
