Star Wars in other media
The first Star Wars spinoff material appeared in 1976 as a novelization titled From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. George Lucas later commissioned Alan Dean Foster to write a sequel called Splinter of the Mind's Eye in 1978. This book was originally intended to serve as the basis for a low-budget film sequel before the success of the original movie changed plans. A Star Wars Holiday Special aired in 1978 with limited involvement from Lucas himself.
Running from April 1977 to May 1986, the Marvel Comics series became one of the industry's top selling titles by 1979 and 1980. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter credited this run with saving Marvel financially during those years. Two Ewoks television films aired in 1984 and 1985 while an animated series produced by Nelvana ran between 1985 and 1986. The Star Tours ride opened at Disney Parks in 1987 to mark the saga's tenth anniversary.
Following that milestone, the release of new spin-off media largely halted until 1991. In 1987 West End Games began publishing Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game along with sourcebooks and adventure modules. Some fans feared the franchise had come to an end during this period known as the Dark Times. By 2004 over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published including novels comics non-fiction and magazines.
In the opening scene of Heir to the Empire a young officer named Grand Admiral Thrawn stands before a holographic display of the galaxy. Timothy Zahn introduced this character in his 1991 novel which reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. The story follows Thrawn as he commands Imperial forces against the remnants of the Rebel Alliance using strategic brilliance rather than brute force alone.
Dark Force Rising released in 1992 continues the narrative with Mara Jade appearing for the first time alongside Thrawn. The final book The Last Command arrived in 1993 completing what became known as the Thrawn trilogy. These three novels jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day according to StarWars.com in 2014. They revitalized the entire franchise by introducing new characters and expanding timelines beyond the original films.
Around the same time Dark Horse Comics launched the Dark Empire sequence from 1991 to 1995 written by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy. This comic series resurrected Emperor Palpatine through cloned bodies despite Zahn's criticism of the concept. The Jedi Prince series released between 1992 and 1993 depicted Luke Leia and Han about a year after Return of the Jedi.
Leland Chee was hired as Continuity Database Administrator for Lucas Licensing in 2000 to develop a database of franchise continuity. He based his work partly on the 1998 encyclopedic reference book Star Wars: Behind the Magic. The resulting system came to be known as the Holocron containing over 55,000 entries for franchise characters locations species and vehicles.
Sue Rostoni stated in 2001 that their goal was to present a continuous and unified history of the Star Wars galaxy without conflicting with Lucas's film saga. The Holocron divided canon into five levels of precedence starting with G-canon which represented George Lucas's own view of the universe. T-canon covered television content including The Clone Wars while C-canon encompassed most Expanded Universe material like books comics and video games.
Secondary canon labeled S-canon included elements contradicted by higher levels such as the Holiday Special except where referenced elsewhere. D-canon referred to unreleased show Detours intended as parody but following serial storylines at low canonicity. N-canon designated non-canon stories like What If scenarios or crossover appearances directly contradicted by higher tiers.
On the 30th of October 2012 the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for four billion dollars equivalent to about seven billion dollars today due to inflation. Subsequently Lucasfilm formed the Lucasfilm Story Group to keep track of and define canon across all media. Members included Chee Kiri Hart and Pablo Hidalgo who worked to unify films comics and other works under one framework.
the 25th of April 2014 marked when Lucasfilm rebranded most Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends excluding The Clone Wars. This decision declared previous continuity non-canonical to shift focus toward new unified storytelling. Chee stated in a 2014 Twitter post that replacing hierarchical systems with cohesive ones was a primary goal of the story group.
The final season of The Clone Wars released in 2020 contradicted aspects of the 2016 novel Ahsoka while The Bad Batch series later conflicted with elements from the 2015 Kanan comic book. Jennifer Corbett explained that everything done served a reason even if it did not match existing material perfectly. In 2019 Marvel published a one-issue continuation of its original 1977 comic series marking the first new story in Legends continuity.
A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller became the first canonical novel published in September 2014 serving as a prologue to Rebels which aired a month later. The Force Awakens arrived in December 2015 sparking minor fan backlash against the restructured canon. Dave Filoni reintroduced Thrawn into canon during the third season of Rebels in 2016 prompting Timothy Zahn to write new novels about him.
Rogue One released in 2016 and Solo: A Star Wars Story followed in 2018 alongside The Last Jedi and The Rise Skywalker films. Dozens of novels comics published by Marvel and IDW games like Battlefront II appeared throughout this period. Resistance premiered in late 2018 running until early 2020 as an animated series set within the sequel trilogy era.
The Mandalorian written by Jon Favreau premiered on Disney+ in late 2019 while Obi-Wan Kenobi Andor Lando three Mandalorian spin-offs and The Acolyte were announced for February 2020. The High Republic line began publishing books and comics starting in August 2020 taking place two hundred years before Phantom Menace without overlapping current productions.
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Common questions
When did the first Star Wars spinoff material appear?
The first Star Wars spinoff material appeared in 1976 as a novelization titled From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. George Lucas later commissioned Alan Dean Foster to write a sequel called Splinter of the Mind's Eye in 1978.
Who created Grand Admiral Thrawn and when was he introduced?
Timothy Zahn introduced this character in his 1991 novel Heir to the Empire which reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. The story follows Thrawn as he commands Imperial forces against the remnants of the Rebel Alliance using strategic brilliance rather than brute force alone.
What date did Disney acquire Lucasfilm for four billion dollars?
On the 30th of October 2012 the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for four billion dollars equivalent to about seven billion dollars today due to inflation. Subsequently Lucasfilm formed the Lucasfilm Story Group to keep track of and define canon across all media.
Which year marked the rebranding of Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends?
the 25th of April 2014 marked when Lucasfilm rebranded most Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends excluding The Clone Wars. This decision declared previous continuity non-canonical to shift focus toward new unified storytelling.
When did A New Dawn become the first canonical novel published after the 2014 restructure?
A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller became the first canonical novel published in September 2014 serving as a prologue to Rebels which aired a month later. The Force Awakens arrived in December 2015 sparking minor fan backlash against the restructured canon.