David Bridges
Ten years in the past this week, the publication of A New Daybreak—a prequel novel meant to tie into the then-upcoming Star Wars Rebels, the primary TV present made underneath 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 just a few months prior in April 2014. However now a decade on, the affect of this choice just isn’t felt a lot within the tales being advised, however the broader Star Wars fandom’s relationship with them.
That is, in fact, partly due to the sorts of tales which can be 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 films and the 3DCG Clone Wars TV present—now left a inventive 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: every part going ahead, together with video games, comics, books, TV exhibits, and the newly introduced sequel trilogy, could be in narrative lockstep with one another. Outdoors of some very particular picks 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 method to continuity. By and huge, most occasions had been comparatively in sync with one another, however tiers of canonicity may 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 method to Mandalorian tradition. However even then, the EU had been round for thus lengthy at that time, and there had been so many alternative sources for materials even with out Lucasfilm creating new films or exhibits past Clone Wars itself after the prequel trilogy, that some particulars usually contradicted one another anyway, giving characters outdated and new arcane, sophisticated backstories that had been a nightmare to navigate for all however probably the most seasoned of followers. However this new, all-in method to canon—one beholden by the shadow of then-incoming films sworn to secrecy—traded that downside for one more. The muddled mess of contradictions and a long time 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 smart. At the least by way of ahead momentum past the unique trilogy, the EU by no means had a selected challenge with the considered extra “official” Star Wars on the speedy horizon like the brand new canon did, and always having to mess around ready for that content material to determine 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 Inheritor 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 performed adapting the film itself. When the prequels got here alongside, that solely served to push the EU’s breadth wider. New films set just a few a long time previous to A New Hope? The EU went again to inform the story of the galaxy a long time 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 after they had been performed, and gave the EU an entire new playground to mess about in, it nonetheless appeared forward a whole lot of years past the movies with collection like Legacy.
In the meantime the final decade of Star Wars has had suits and begins to increase the collection’ horizon throughout mediums, however continuity has by and huge caught to the obscure timeframe across the films, even with the growth to 9 entries within the Star Wars saga by 2019. Outdoors of 1 main initiative, Star Wars: The Excessive 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, moderately than past and even largely previous to them. The virtually 70-year interval that makes up the the “Skywalker Saga” is now stacked with official materials, particularly the time-frame of the prequel and authentic trilogies. We all know, arguably, way more in regards to the occasions within the 20 12 months hole between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope—the interval now formally often called the Reign of the Empire—or the years between the unique movies in official continuity than maybe some other interval of Star Wars, whereas our data of the 30-year hole between Return of the Jedi and The Power Awakens is basically constrained to some 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 may’ve ever actually managed: a fanbase that has been educated by altering cultural tendencies within the final 10-15 years to eat 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 common tradition. In 2014, the second part of Marvel’s cinematic endeavors was effectively underway, having proved that it may pull off this sort of fandom-rewarding continuity throughout movie and TV. DC and numerous different manufacturers had been already desperate to comply with swimsuit in their very own makes an attempt to chase Marvel’s dominance on the field workplace. However whereas it might 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 more and more co-opted by company entities) and media, and their shared method to “It All Issues” continuities: inserting an significance on the cultivation of information above some other connection to the narrative.
Each time a brand new challenge of Marvel’s relaunched Star Wars comedian dropped, there got here a brand new “affirmation” of a elementary, additive factoid to continuity. Each new guide was virtually instantly picked aside for the uncooked data of occasions, characters, and references that had been now being stitched again into the tapestry of the franchise. With every part cleaned and so new, each new media launch was an opportunity to study one thing that might be the primary of its form on this new age, one thing that might be meticulously added to fandom wikis inside minutes and hours of recent materials popping out. Every thing could have mattered to continuity in a way that it was all in lockstep with one another, but it surely turned more and more clear what mattered most to a very good chunk of the viewers was not the storytelling itself, however the information buried inside it. Even now, 10 years in, as Star Wars finds itself in seeking to see what tales are advised subsequent, these attitudes are laborious to surrender, with particulars and unfastened aspersions to the Expanded Universe picked aside and re-integrated again 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 maintain 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 advised. Like we stated, Star Wars is presently at one thing of a crossroads, in methods good and dangerous. The lack of The Acolyte seemingly heralds the gradual finish to one among 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 increase 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 undertaking, set 1000’s of years previously (if both will get to the massive display in any respect, that’s). Star Wars books have thrived on this potential no matter constraint, giving us tales that discover totally different varieties, 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 solely simply getting began. 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 an entire extensive galaxy of potential on the market to discover, a hope that burns simply as brightly now because it did a decade in the past.
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Daniel Mercer
