Gabriel Giraud
Staff Reporter
January 30th, 2020
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concluded the Disney trilogy and fans are looking elsewhere for Star Wars content. Many people sang praise for The Mandolorian while others rewatched the old trilogies that they grew up with. However, not a lot of people are talking about the Star Wars Expanded Universe, or EU.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe originally began back in 1978 with the first book titled Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, written by Alan Dean Foster, which followed Luke and Leia to the planet Mimban where they first encounter Darth Vader. This story, along with the comics by Marvel, began the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Each story delves deeper into Star Wars and the topics that surround the series, like the Sith and Jedi orders, battles that have taken place off screen, and even a zombie outbreak that almost destroyed the galaxy also getting some recognition.
The Sith Lords are the most interesting topic of the EU, with people like Darth Sion, a Sith lord who was too angry to die, and the backstories of infamous Siths like Darth Sidious and Darth Tyrannus, also known as Count Dooku. Each story in the EU usually is told over 3 books, making the EU pretty expansive; luckily, it’s not necessary to read every single story to understand it. This allows a degree of freedom in how people read the EU, and many opportunities to get into storylines.
However, in 2014, Disney declared the EU non-canon, meaning the EU is not legitimate or true to the franchise, in preparation for the upcoming Star Wars films. This outraged many fans who had invested considerable time into the EU, and this was worsened by the fact that most of the Disney films are copied from the EU. Disney’s reasons for this decision were superficial at best, but they stated they wanted freedom with their movies. Any EU stories after 2014 are put under the Star Wars Legends logo.
The Star Wars EU is still being expanded to this day, detailing Finn and Rey’s journey that does not happen on the big screen. These new EU books bridge gaps and fill plot holes that reside within the new movie. The latest in this series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, written by Rebecca Roanhorse, is a prequel to the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker film. This means that even though the Star Wars EU is considered dead, it still lives on in its own way.
The Star Wars movies are over, but this does not mean that Star Wars is dead as a whole. The Expanded Universe is a great read and filled with creativity that will take you to a galaxy far, far away.
atholtonnews.com 