Saga The Final State of Lucas Canon

To preface, even before Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, what was considered "canon" wasn't in line with what George Lucas actually intended. As can be seen by the amount of backpedaling that had to be done in the Expanded Universe whenever a new movie came out and contradicted what came before it. Also, George flat-out said they're different universes:

He further clarifies that other infamous EU elements never happen in the main storyline - Vader doesn't come back, the Emperor doesn't get cloned, Luke doesn't get married, etc.

So in addition to the movies, what other forms of media offered a true continuation of Lucas' canon universe? Which stories were made with his consent/supervision?

- Episodes I-VI (latest Special Editions)
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye
- Star Wars: Clone Wars microseries
- Star Wars: Droids - Enough elements are seen in the movies to form a correlation
- Star Wars Dark Horse Series
- Jedi Council: Acts of War - Introduces Tsui Choi, a character that would be included into the film's canon
- Shadows of the Empire - Directly referenced in the Special Editions of A New Hope
- Thrawn Trilogy - introduces a few elements seen in the films
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (movie and TV series) - As much as it contradicts the movies in places, Lucas was the executive producer, thus had to sign off on the final product

While a few pre-existing sources can be disregarded as filmmakers simply taking what they like and ignoring the rest, I'll list them here for the fact that there's no conflicts and they're directly referenced.

 

Dark Empire had some of Lucas's supervision. They wanted to bring Vader back in some fashion, he said no, they agreed - they suggested the Emperor possessed his own clone instead - he said yes.

Then he said, much later "In my universe, the Emperor doesn't get cloned" (no EU source ever actually brought Vader back to life though).

So "What happened in Lucas's headcanon" can be very different from "What Lucas supervised, consented to, etc. to some degree." The only things we can be certain of, are TCW and the movies. Even "G-canon" sources had authors doing their own thing - novelization writers, radio play writers, etc.

 

I think Lucas treated the Clone Wars microseries as the same as the EU, as it was largely undone by the 3D Clone Wars series.

 

I'd include the Brian Daley novels in that list, since they were written not to contradict whatever would show up in the not-yet-made TESB.

 

Not the same thing as "Lucas feels that the events of those books, happened in "his universe"" though.

Also, I don't remember ever reading anything that demonstrated that Brian Daley had access to anything that would ensure he couldn't contradict TESB.

The Force Unleashed would be another example of "Lucas had quite a bit of input, but that doesn't mean it happened in his universe"

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Force_Unleashed

 

From what I understand, at that point there was no TESB to contradict, beyond telling Daley to stay away from anything post-"Star Wars". Daley was allowed to expand on Han's character, branching off from the brief character sketch that Lucas wrote. I know they addressed the books in one of the "Star Wars Insider" issues; I'll have to double-check.

 

Lucas' universe can be so confusing. And unfortunately people can't live inside his head so the property expanded and he just didn't like some concepts.

However his final canon to me is the films pure and simple, not counting TV films or series.

Just the six episodes

 

In A. C. Crispin's later Han Solo Trilogy, there was a similar "stay away from X era" rule (specifically, Han's actual time at the Imperial Academy, and his first meeting with Chewie.) Hence book 1 ending with his walking in after having enrolled, and book 2 beginning immediately after Han has been thrown out.

 

I thought with Lucas it was always the movies were canon and everything else could live or die as long as they didn't interfere with the movies or future movies.

So he could like an EU story. Consider it canon (why shun it for the sake of it?) But if he had an idea that conflicted, his new idea took precedence.

 

From my knowledge, I think the only official Lucas cannon is:

• Episode I
• Episode II
• The Clone Wars (Movie and all seasons)
• Episode III
• (The unused scripts for the Live action starwars tv show)
• Episode IV
• Episode V
• Episode VI

In addition, I think there are several projects that are close to cannon, but with elements that are not:

• Darth Plagueis (novel) - A lot of ideas from this book came from Lucas, although lots of other EU elements are mentioned as well.
• Star Tours (Theme park attraction) - Lucas oversaw these attractions, although how "cannon" they are is questionable.
• Shadows of the Empire (novel) - This is probably the closest to cannon on this list, although I have a feeling it would be a bit different if Lucas were to make it today.

You could also make an argument for the novels "Cloak of Deception", "Labyrinth of Evil", "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader", and elements from "Tarkin".

I don't think Lucas would consider "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" as cannon in it's current form, although he might think elements of it still apply. Beyond those, I am sure there are bits and pieces he would consider to have cannon elements(such as the Darth Bane novels), but also see them as having a lot EU elements as well.

I think it will be interesting if/when we see the story outlines he created for the sequel trilogy and how those relate to how people see the Lucas "cannon".

 

True, there is a difference between things bearing Lucas' name and things he genuinely takes as part of the films. The Holiday Special is an example of such where he provided a lot of the background and story, but ultimately ruled out the final product as being part of the main universe.

It does get a little contradictory in parts because Lucas occasionally suggests/approves plot points despite not approving them in his own universe. Like Darth Maul coming back to life despite definitively dying on screen in The Phantom Menace. For that matter, the original Clone Wars 2D series probably bears a higher level of "Lucas canon" than the 3D one simply because the major plot points came directly from Lucas to bridge the gap between II and III. The 3D series was looser in its content because it wouldn't impact any new movies (at the time).

 

Splinter of the Mind's Eye: It's more of a what-if story, since it was only done in case there was no chance of making a film sequel.

Clone Wars micro-series: He was not that much involved. He virtually only comissioned the series.

The Star Wars (Dark Horse): He was sent designs for approval but it's more of an experiment than a canonical entry (it's a completely different story).

Shadows of the Empire: It wasn't directly referenced by the Special Edition. It was the other way around. When Shadows of the Empire was being developed, so were the Special Editions. So they took concept art and designs from the SEs and applied it to Shadows. No involvement whatsoever from Lucas.

The Clone Wars: He was more than just the executive producer, he came up with the stories and approved the episodes at various stages of production.

At the end of the day, the George Lucas Star Wars canon is only comprised of Episodes I-VI and TCW (and the never released finished scripts of Underworld and his story treatment of the sequel trilogy).

 

Not creating anything, I'm replying to the topic that's being discussed. The George Lucas canon has existed before Legends and Disney (and happens to be the canon that I go by as well since I don't care for the rest).

 

If I am ever going to call something the Lucas Canon I would say it’s the first 6 movies plus TCW and that’s it. Although I would never say that.

 

Outside of Wookieepedia I have never seen that referred to

 

It was an internal system created by and used for Licensing. To Lucas, what counted were the six movies and later TCW.

 

Lucas changed his mind so much, I don't know if you could say anything but the six films are "Lucas Canon." But even those have EU references (like Aayla Secura and Tsui Choi, for example.)

 

When exactly did he changed his mind on this? He's been pretty consistent throughout. His Star Wars are the six films and later on, TCW too.

 

The Special Editions, having certain EU elements in the films/TCW, etc.

 

Since when are those a decision/change of mind on canon? What he considered canon never changed, it was never in question either. His works were what he considered canon. That's the six movies and TCW.

 

Huh?! How exactly was I being condescending? I was stating facts:

"There are two worlds here. There's my world, which is the movies, and there's this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe—the licensing world of the books, games and comic books. They don't intrude on my world, which is a select period of time, [but] they do intrude in between the movies. I don't get too involved in the parallel universe." - George Lucas

"There's three pillars of Star Wars. I'll probably get in trouble for this but it's OK! There's three pillars: the father, the son and the holy ghost. I'm the father, Howard Roffman [president of Lucas Licensing] is the son and the holy ghost is the fans, this kind of ethereal world of people coming up with all kinds of different ideas and histories. Now these three different pillars don't always match, but the movies and TV show are all under my control and they are consistent within themselves." - George Lucas