Ten years in the past this week, the publication of A New Dawn—a prequel novel meant to tie into the then-upcoming Star Wars Rebels, the primary TV present made below Lucasfilm’s possession by Disney—formally launched a revised Star Wars canon. It was information the fandom had recognized was coming for some time as much as that time, with the traditional Expanded Universe, now dubbed Legends, formally coming to its finish a couple of months prior in April 2014. However now a decade on, the impression of this determination shouldn’t be felt a lot within the tales being instructed, however the broader Star Wars fandom’s relationship with them.
That is, after all, partly due to the sorts of tales which are being chosen to inform, and when these tales are set. The reset of Star Wars continuity all the way down to its most elementary parts—the then-six Star Wars motion pictures and the 3DCG Clone Wars TV present—now left a artistic canvas as broad as in contrast to something the Expanded Universe had seen virtually since its inception to inform new tales. However the brand new canon additionally got here with a rule the EU had by no means actually performed with: all the things going ahead, together with video games, comics, books, TV exhibits, and the newly introduced sequel trilogy, can be in narrative lockstep with one another. Outdoors of some very particular alternatives of media, all Star Wars going ahead “mattered” to exploring and filling on this newly condensed canon.
The Expanded Universe had lengthy operated on a striated strategy to continuity. By and huge, most occasions have been comparatively in sync with one another, however tiers of canonicity might override each other, particularly with the arrival of the Clone Wars TV present as a product created by Lucas himself, resulting in a number of controversial retcons—just like the present’s approach to Mandalorian culture. However even then, the EU had been round for thus lengthy at that time, and there had been so many various sources for materials even with out Lucasfilm creating new motion pictures or exhibits past Clone Wars itself after the prequel trilogy, that some particulars usually contradicted one another anyway, giving characters previous and new arcane, difficult backstories that have been a nightmare to navigate for all however probably the most seasoned of followers. However this new, all-in strategy to canon—one beholden by the shadow of then-incoming motion pictures sworn to secrecy—traded that drawback for one more. The muddled mess of contradictions and many years of lore the EU had developed was gone, however so too was the sheer breadth of storytelling it had virtually instantly begun to play with.
In some methods, this is sensible. At the very least by way of ahead momentum past the unique trilogy, the EU by no means had a specific subject with the considered extra “official” Star Wars on the rapid horizon like the brand new canon did, and always having to mess around ready for that content material to ascertain the way forward for the franchise. The prequels didn’t come till virtually a decade after the EU had formally started in earnest with the discharge of Heir to the Empire, however even earlier than Inheritor, Star Wars storytellers virtually instantly started exploring tales of what got here after Return of the Jedi in Marvel’s Star Wars comedian after it was executed adapting the film itself. When the prequels got here alongside, that solely served to push the EU’s breadth wider. New motion pictures set a couple of many years previous to A New Hope? The EU went again to inform the story of the galaxy many years earlier than that, after which 1000’s of years earlier than that with the likes of Tales of the Jedi or Knights of the Outdated Republic. And once they have been executed, and gave the EU a complete new playground to mess about in, it nonetheless seemed forward tons of of years past the movies with sequence like Legacy.
In the meantime the final decade of Star Wars has had matches and begins to broaden the sequence’ horizon throughout mediums, however continuity has by and huge caught to the obscure time-frame across the motion pictures, even with the growth to 9 entries within the Star Wars saga by 2019. Outdoors of 1 main initiative, Star Wars: The High Republic, which started telling tales a number of centuries earlier than the time of the films, a lot materials made because the reset has served to fill within the video games between movies, quite than past and even largely previous to them. The just about 70-year interval that makes up the the “Skywalker Saga” is now stacked with official materials, particularly the time-frame of the prequel and unique trilogies. We all know, arguably, much more concerning the occasions within the 20 yr hole between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope—the interval now officially known as the Reign of the Empire—or the years between the unique movies in official continuity than maybe another interval of Star Wars, whereas our information of the 30-year hole between Return of the Jedi and The Pressure Awakens is essentially constrained to a couple occasions instantly after Jedi, the overall interval loosely drawn round The Mandalorian and its affiliated exhibits (a spotlight that’s an ever-increasing precedence for Lucasfilm as of late). For as reticent as Star Wars has felt to maneuver on past this timeframe after the disappointing response to The Rise of Skywalker 5 years in the past, because it now stays an ongoing, perpetually increasing franchise, it’s going to take much more than the ten years it’s already taken for present continuity to get to the scope of the EU at its top due to that restriction.
And but, the brand new canon additionally faces a restriction that neither it nor its masters might’ve ever actually managed: a fanbase that has been educated by altering cultural developments within the final 10-15 years to consume media and its canon. The rise of Star Wars‘ continuity reset got here adjoining to what was the start of the apex of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its popularization of the “all-connected” shared universe as a power to be reckoned with in well-liked tradition. In 2014, the second part of Marvel’s cinematic endeavors was effectively underway, having proved that it might pull off this sort of fandom-rewarding continuity throughout movie and TV. DC and numerous different manufacturers have been already desperate to observe swimsuit in their very own makes an attempt to chase Marvel’s dominance on the field workplace. However whereas it will be unfair to say that Star Wars was a type of manufacturers doing the chasing, the brand new continuity got here at a crossroads in popular culture fandom (and its rise as being increasingly co-opted by company entities) and media, and their shared strategy to “It All Issues” continuities: inserting an significance on the cultivation of details above another connection to the narrative.
Each time a brand new subject of Marvel’s relaunched Star Wars comedian dropped, there got here a brand new “affirmation” of a basic, additive factoid to continuity. Each new e-book was virtually instantly picked aside for the uncooked data of occasions, characters, and references that have been now being stitched again into the tapestry of the franchise. With all the things cleaned and so new, each new media launch was an opportunity to study one thing that may be the primary of its variety on this new age, one thing that may very well be meticulously added to fandom wikis inside minutes and hours of latest materials popping out. The whole lot could have mattered to continuity in a way that it was all in lockstep with one another, but it surely grew to become more and more clear what mattered most to an excellent chunk of the viewers was not the storytelling itself, however the details buried inside it. Even now, 10 years in, as Star Wars finds itself in seeking to see what tales are instructed subsequent, these attitudes are laborious to surrender, with particulars and unfastened aspersions to the Expanded Universe picked apart and re-integrated back into the brand new canon much less for his or her thematic weight, however as a result of they’re a issues followers can level at and acknowledge, and be lauded for doing so.
However neither of those are deadly issues going through the present Star Wars canon. If something, that issues preserve increasing 10 years in is a testomony to the truth that, regardless of the cultural sea modifications the saga has confronted in that interval, there may be nonetheless loads of alternative for brand new Star Wars tales to be instructed. Like we mentioned, Star Wars is at the moment at one thing of a crossroads, in methods good and unhealthy. The loss of The Acolyte seemingly heralds the sluggish finish to considered one of Star Wars‘ freshest areas of exploration for the foreseeable future, and its focus on tales that focus across the success of The Mandalorian threatens to condense Star Wars‘ potential and its worldview much more narrowly. However there may be hope to broaden these horizons once more in tasks like Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order film, the primary canonical materials to grapple with the Star Wars galaxy after the occasions of The Rise of Skywalker, or James Mangold’s Daybreak of the Jedi mission, set 1000’s of years up to now (if both will get to the massive display screen in any respect, that’s). Star Wars books have thrived on this potential no matter constraint, giving us tales that discover completely different forms, eras, and approaches to Star Wars that the live-action media has barely managed to scratch the floor of.
Ten years into its personal lifespan, the Expanded Universe as we come to knew it was nonetheless only just getting started. Ten years into this newest period of Star Wars continuity, the sensation is far the identical—and even with the cultural challenges it has confronted, there may be nonetheless a whole wide galaxy of potential on the market to discover, a hope that burns simply as brightly now because it did a decade in the past.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the things you’ll want to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.
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