In the late 70s and the 80s, Star Wars fans craved more and more from the Star Wars universe. I know this for a fact because I was one of these fans The movies were so awesome but it took three year to bring the next movie. Then in 1983, Return of the Jedi concluded the most wonderful universe (until 1999 but we didn’t know that). There were a few books about Han Solo’s adventures and Marvel had a Star Wars comic book series but mostly it was an untapped universe.
Things started to change a little by little in the early 1990s. Timothy Zahn put out a fantastic trilogy of books that opened our eyes to how much we missed the Star Wars universe. The Thrawn Trilogy reminded us how cool and awesome the Star Wars universe could be. This book series quickly sold out of book stores and became a best seller.
I point to the Thrawn Trilogy as the true start to the Expanded Universe. George Lucas allowed others to write stories in the form of books, comics, and video games to enhance and elaborate this fantastic universe. He always stated that these stories were not Star Wars Cannon but he didn’t hesitate to take ideas from this ever expanding universe to use in the Prequels. Now we have history from hundreds of year prior to Star Wars: A New Hope and hundreds of years after Return of the Jedi.
After years of fans and writers (often the same) sticking very close to the details and continuity of the Expanded Universe, we are told that much of this may be simply ignored for the sequel movies. We should have known this would happen. After all, George himself told all of us fans that the Expanded Universe wasn’t Cannon. But there has been so much invested in the Expanded Universe, I hate to see it being ignored.
It will greatly upset me if Episode VII doesn’t have some reference to my favorite Expanded Universe character, Mara Jade. She is the essence of awesome. I will also be let down if we don’t have mention of the Solo children, Jaina, Jacen (the twins) and Anakin.
I hope that they don’t throw out all of the Expanded Universe. I hope they use what makes sense. Have some nudge and winks to the fans that have help the fire of the Star Wars Universe even during the dark times (the Prequels). We are the fans that will be there opening day to see the new Star Wars movie even if it stinks.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
