Expanded Universe/Legends Question

I'm brand new to anything outside of the Star Wars movies, with the exception of like Encyclopedia type of books. Figured I'd give some of the novels a try since I'm not the biggest fan of the newer movies. So far I've read Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Darth Plagueis and Heir to the Empire, going to start Dark Force Rising soon.

My question is, before Disney bought Star Wars was everything supposed to be a part of the same timeline? (I'm assuming with the exception of Splinter of the Mind's Eye) Like the Darth Plagueis novel is in the same universe as all the video games and all the comics? So far from the little research I've done on this it seems like it's so.

 

Virtually everything was, yes. Including Splinter of the Mind's Eye (other Legends books reference events from it).

The most notable exceptions are referred to as "Star Wars Infinities" rather than Star Wars Legends.

 

No, George Lucas didn't consider the Expanded Universe canon. The only way he would allow to exist was a 'parallel Star Wars universe'. There is alot of debate on the subject, but there is just way too much evidence to come to any other conclusion, his own words alone spell it out.
There are tons of EU people who still insist he considered it canon, he most certainly did not.

The were separate universes. Those things in those books happen, but they only happen in the parallel Star Wars universe, not in George Lucas's canonical Star Wars universe.

"I don't read that stuff, I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world. But I do try and keep it consistent. The way I do it is they have a Star Wars encyclopedia. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it and see if it has already been used. When I said other people could make thier own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have TWO universes: My Universe and than this other one. They try to make THIER universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."

~ George Lucas, August, 2005
https://ibb.co/Km1CcNs

.........

“There are two worlds here,” explained Lucas. “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.
~ George Lucas, Cinescape, 2002

..............

"And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, 2008

.................


”The novels and comic books are other authors' interpretations of my creation. Sometimes, I tell them what they can and cant do, but I just don't have the time to read them. They're not my vision of what Star Wars is."

~ George Lucas 2004

-------------------
"I like to refer to the Interview with Lucas in the Special Editions.When asked about the novels and what not, he simply says:

”Those are another author's interpretation of what I've created, and not to be taken seriously, as far as what is really going on in the Star Wars world.”
~ George Lucas

-------------------------
"Q: What do you think of the Expanded Universe of books?

A: "The books are in a different universe. I've not read any of them, and I told them when they started writing I wouldn't read any of them and I blocked out certain periods ."
~ George Lucas 2003

...........

"Howard Roffman [President of Lucas Licensing], He once said to me that there are two Star Trek universes: there's the TV show and then there's all the spin-offs. He said that these were completely different and didn't have anything to do with each other. So I said, "OK, go ahead."
~ George Lucas 2008

---------------------------

"Continuity is for wimps."
~ George Lucas during TCW

------------

"TVGuide: Yet novelists have written "Star Wars" sequels using the same characters and extending their stories.

"Oh, sure. They're done outside my little universe."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, November 2001 - TV Guide interview

...............

"Q: Do you supervise the development of all the off-movie stories? After all, Star Wars exists in books, comics.


A: "You know, I try not to think about that. I have my own world in movies and I follow it."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, July 2002 - From a The Force.Net

-------------------


"The fact of the matter is that the merchandising side of Star Wars is something that never enters my mind during pre-production or even during production. Merchandising is only a secondary thought and is important for the fact that it makes the production of the prequels financially possible."
~ George Lucas, 1997

Licensing/merchandising
(Merchandise, Like Toys, Books, Comics, Video Games and Stuff).

............


"George Lucas says there has never been any war between the Jedi and the Sith in his Star Wars Canon" - An excerpt from StarWars.com‘s oral history of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace:


Everybody said, “Oh, well, there was a war between the Jedi and the Sith.” Well, that never happened. That’s just made up by fans or somebody. What really happened is, the Sith ruled the universe for a while, 2000 years ago. Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left.

"But anyway, there’s a whole matrix of backstory that has never really come out. It’s really just history that I gathered up along the way. It’s all based on backstories that I’d written setting up what the Jedi were, setting up what the Sith were, setting up what the Empire was, setting up what the Republic was, and how it all fit together I never really got a chance to explain the Whills part."

'George Lucas’ vision of the galaxy’s ancient times is clearly different from the Expanded Universe. Many wars between Jedi and Sith in the Old Republic era were told in games, books and comics. The current Lucasfilm’s canon didn’t explore this era yet.'

https://naboonews.wordpress.com/201...r-between-the-jedi-and-the-sith-in-his-canon/

.............


"I don't even read the offshoot books that come out based on Star Wars."
~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, July 1999 - Film Night interview

------------
"So if we'll never see it onscreen, what does happen to Princess Leia and Han Solo after they fall in love?

”Han and Leia probably did get married,” Lucas conceded. ”They settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking burgers on the grill. Is that a movie? I don't think so.”

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, May 2005 - MTV interview

.............


"This is Star Wars, and I don't make a distinction between [The Clone Wars] series and the films."
~ George Lucas, SciFiNow, October 2011

---------------

Q: Can you quote any good story other than the movies?

A: "No, I don't think so. (laughs)."
~ George Lucas

-----------------------------------

"Q: in that vein, is it possible we'll see more Star Wars TV product?

A: Because I"m retiring from this part of my creative life, I'm open to more TV Product. but not more feature films, the story is complete. [and any other story wouldn't be my philosophy and views,] the books are not the same philosophy as the movies."

~ George Lucas 2003

---------------------------

"The movies are Gospel, and everything else is Gossip."
~ George Lucas

..............


"The question selected from The Furry Conflict poll was: How much does the Expanded Universe influence the movies?


"As I asked him, Lucas leaned back a moment and said to me “Very little.” When he first had agreed to let people write Expanded Universe books, he had said “I’m not gonna read ‘em” and it was a “different universe” and that he wanted to keep away from the time period of his saga. He jokingly complained, however, that now when he writes a script he has to look through an encyclopedia to make sure that a name he comes up with doesn’t come too close to something in the EU."

- "Marc Xavier", November 2003, "The Furry Conflict and the Great ‘Beard‘ of the Galaxy (report based on a Q&A session with George Lucas which occurred at USC on 11-19-03)

-------------------------------


"But there's three worlds: There's my world that I made up, there's the licensing world that's the books, the comics, all that kind of stuff, the games, which is their world, and then there's the fans' world, which is also very rich in imagination, but they don't always mesh. All I'm in charge of is my world. I can't be in charge of those other people's world, because I can't keep up with it."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, Mar. 2008

..........


"THESE ARE MY KIDS, ALL THE STAR WARS MOVIES."
~ George Lucas, Charlie Rose Interview, 2015

 

There are also the statements of the biggest names in Star Wars, some of which worked personally with George Lucas and were part of his team and knew him best. They confirm his view as being true and accurate and how he saw things and he he ruled things were.

There are far too many quotes to share in entirety, but I will give a few from each of the major names and personalities that worked inside Star Wars when Lucas still owned it.
.......................

"I think people over emphasize the importance of the canon level. The intent of the canon levels was, as the main intent was 'if someones looking for the ships from a film, they can than use those fields to check for them only in the films,and thus separate that from what was in the EU. So we can look at it case by case. I think there is an over emphasis of what those fields mean and what they represent".
~ Leland Chee


"That 'level of canon' thus helps in terms of bookkeeping. Those 'canon levels' are for the holocron."
~ Pablo Hidalgo


ForceCast #273: The Galaxy Is Reading - Interview with Leland Chee and Pablo Hidalgo, 2013 - Starts at about the 1 hour mark so 1:00 - 1:02 mark

http://www.forcecast.net/stor/home/ForceCast_273_The_Galaxy_Is_Reading_154431
.asp

.................

"What George did with the films and The Clone Wars was pretty much his universe ,” Chee said. “He didn’t really have that much concern for what we were doing in the books and games. So the Expanded Universe was very much separate."

~ Leland Chee, 2017 - SYFY WIRE

------------------

“Lucas’ canon – and when I say ‘his canon’, I’m talking about what he was doing in the films and what he was doing in The Clone Wars – was hugely important. But what we were doing in the books really wasn’t on his radar.”
~ Leland Chee, 2018

-------------

"The dual universe question comes up often. I know George Lucas has mentioned it being two universes , but that’s not how I see it. His vision is definitely not beholden to ours, but ours is definitely beholden to his."
~ Leland Chee 2012

----------------

“I did not have direct contact with George about Star Wars continuity. Dave Filoni, who worked on Clone Wars, definitely did. So for me, the spirit of George’s work is what’s in the films, and it doesn’t go too far beyond that.”
~ Leland Chee 2018
................

'And what goes in the blank timeline spaces of the Film Only universe - can we never know the history or background of that Star Wars universe like we can in the EU Star Wars universe?'

"Nothing. That's why it's film only."
~ Leland Chee, 2007

https://ibb.co/3dBN7Sw

.............

"I didn't have any direct contact with George about Star Wars. - I would see some notes based on the interviews or the meetings. But I did not have direct contact with George about Star Wars continuity."
~ Leland Chee 2018
........

Chee does point out that there is one higher authority than the Holocron: Lucas himself, who is free to alter continuity at will.

https://www.mcservices.com/blog/cus...star-wars-continuity-with-filemaker-database/
..............

"Understand, that the Holocron's primary purpose is to keep track of Star Wars continuity for Lucas Licensing , and to some degree Lucas Online. To my knowledge, it is only rarely used for production purposes."

~ Leland Chee 2005
.................
"The G/C/S-level canon stuff is a construct specifically for the Holocron. Non-Holocron users would have no idea what this stuff even means. and I would say most of the people who use the Holocron don't use the field, instead looking specifically to the source of the material. Individual entries are not broken down by canon level."
~ Leland Chee, 2005
...................
"Dave Filoni is better equipped to relay Lucas’ true feelings about the EU." ~ Leland Chee
..................

Dave Filoni was George Lucas's protege for 7 years, they worked side by side on the 2008 The Clone Wars series that Lucas was massively involved in, he made most of the storylines.

"There's this notion that everything changed when everything became Legends. And I can see why people think that. But, you know, having worked with George I can tell you that it was always very clear -- and he made it very clear -- that the films and the TV shows were the only things that he considered Canon. That was it. -
Dave Filoni interview on 'The Star Wars show' [41.40 mark]-



"So everything else was a world of fun ideas, exciting characters, great possibilities, the EU was created to explore all those things. And I know and I fully respect peoples opinions about it that some of the material said 'the next canon part of it' <wink,wink>[It wasn't canon].... But from the filmmaking world I was brought into, the films and TV shows were it."
~ Dave Filoni speaking about working with George Lucas
.................

ramatic series, there’s a lot of action, a bit of humor."*
"The terminology of "Expanded Universe" was a careful one; it expanded on the world created in the core stories, but was never officially meant to be Star Wars canon, according to the Maker himself, George Lucas."

~ Dave Filoni 2017
--------------------

"There is no more clear illustration of the difference between the Expanded Universe and the Star Wars created by George Lucas. The EU is a well of ideas,and there's what's on screen. They don't live in the same universe. Everyone wants to think so, I know… We just need to think of it all as a creative collection of fun ideas separate from what George Lucas has made."
~ Dave Filoni 2012

--------------------

How early on did you know that the show [Clone Wars series] would be considered canon?

"Everything that I’ve worked on at Lucasfilm has been considered canon. Working on Clone Wars, it was always canon. I never really worry about it. I always figured that most things that are done in a cinematic form, whether it be television or movies, are the only things that George considered canon because it was the stuff that he helped produce. So,it made sense that this would be, as well."

~ Dave Filoni Interview, 2014
https://collider.com/star-wars-rebels-easter-eggs-episode-7/
.................

"Back then We were the only thing really happening in canon while we did Clone Wars[series]."
~ Dave Filoni

Star Wars Rebels Executive Producer Dave Filoni Interview, 2015

Interviewer - "Thank you for making Darth Bane canon."


........

"That’s one of the biggest debates in Star Wars, what counts? The idea of what is canon? When I talk to George I know that he considers his movies, this series and his live-action series canon."

~ Dave Filoni, SW:TCW 2008
----------------------

"The TV series is exactly like the movies, exactly. I mean, you can see it in the clip. It’s basically just the movies only with cartoon characters. It’s basically a dramatic series, there’s a lot of action, a bit of humor."

~ George Lucas, 2008
.........

"The importance of The Clone Wars that cannot be understated is that it was the last huge expansion of the Star Wars universe that came directly from George Lucas."
~ Pablo Hidalgo

---------------------


"I always think of the research you speak of as what I knew about the EU before I took this job. As I stated above, working directly with George changes the way you see the EU and everything in it."

~ Dave Filoni 2008
..................

"This series [Clone Wars Series] at least to George is NOT EU, it is a partof Star Wars as he sees it. I think if anything there was a period where Henry [Gilroy] and I had to learn exactly what it took to be a part of George Lucas’ Star Wars, and tell the Star Wars story his way. We had to learn how to look at the Galaxy from his point of view and let go of some of what we considered canon after we found out the ideas were only EU. Really we had to “unlearn what we had learned” and go back to the movies as the defining source material."
~ Dave Filoni 2008

...........

"I know that GL doens't create the storys and concepts for the SW novels, butdoes anyone know if he approves overall story ideas?"

"George doesn't see the overall story ideas or concepts. If there is a sensitive area, or if we are developing backstory for a character he's created or mentioned in an interview, we can query him to get more information, his approval, or whatever. And yes, we always query him if we're doing something drastic to a film character. I believe he does read the concepts for the games though."

- Sue Rostoni, Lucas Licensing (LLP Managing Editor),2004

----------------------------------------------

"George knows more about Star Wars than we do. He doesn't see the Expanded Universe as ”his” Star Wars, but as ”ours.” I think this has been mentioned previously, maybe in other places, but it's not new info, as far as I remember."

~ Sue Rostoni, Lucas Licensing (LLP Managing Editor),2004

----------

"The books have to follow the same continuity the films do, as they are anintegral part of the overall story of Star Wars that Lucasfilm LTD. recognizes as a legitimate continuation of the films, right?

Yes, the books follow the continuity of the films as best we can taking into account that George follows his own continuity, and rightly so. He's the filmmaker.

As far as ”legitimate continuation of the films” -- If George had continued making SW films past Return of the Jedi, I don't think they would have reflected what the SW authors have written. The books, comics, etc., are a ”legitimate continuation” of the Star Wars saga as we [Lucas Licensing] define it."

~ Sue Rostoni, Lucas Licensing (LLP Managing Editor), 2005
........

"Within the issue of Starlog magazine with the War of the Worlds cover is an interview article with George Lucas. He stated something which he had said before, which is that he doesn't follow the SW EU, he doesn't read the books or comics. He also said that when they started doing all this (which is allowing other storytellers to tell their own SW tales), he had decreed that the Star Wars Universe would be split into two just like Star Trek , one would be his own universe (the six episode movie saga), the other would be a whole other universe (the Expanded Universe). He continued to say that the EU tries as much as possible to tie in to his own universe, but sometimes they move into a whole other line of their own."

~ Confirmed by Sue Rostoni, Lucas Licensing Publishing, 2005
..........


"Does the main storyline for books and comics go through Lucas to make sure it isn't going to conflict with future movies?

No. George doesn't give us much information about his future movies until he's making them. In general, George does not take the EU into account when he's making his movies."

"It's our job to manipulate the EU into fitting George's future movies, which often contradict stuff we've done. Not our ONLY job, of course."

~ Sue Rostoni, LucasBooks/LL Managing Editor, 2003


..............

TFN: So what is the deal with General Grievous’ origin? There’s the first version with the shuttle crash where Dooku upgraded him and there’s the new one with him choosing to upgrade himself. Why the different versions?

Henry Gilroy: George envisioned something different than what was created for the EU and Dave and I jumped at the chance to explore that.

Henry Gilroy, Head Writer TCW /EU Author, TFN TCW Interview 2008

--------------------------


TFN: It’s well know by now that authors and writers of other Star Warsprojects are often given creative ‘boundaries.’ Assuming this is the case forthe new Clone Wars series, were there any surprises to you in terms of what wasn’t off-limits?

Henry: "George gave Dave and I a lot of freedom and he didn’t want us to be limited by what the EU had established."

Henry Gilroy, Head Writer TCW /EU Author, TFN TCW Interview 2008

Dave Filoni: "Writing process? Oh right, well it’s pretty much what Henry described above."

Dave Filoni, TFN TCW Interview 2008
....................

Hi Ashley! Loaded question here. What would you like to say to EU fans who are quite concerned about continuity issues the show sometimes presents? I know you personally have no control over that, but might you have any words of wisdom? We love you!

"In terms of our show have continuity issues with the EU, I would say that The Clone Wars stories are directly from George Lucas. He has been integrally involved in the show from day 1 and he chooses the stories and the outcome. I think Dave Filoni has done a brilliant job at combining some EU characters into our show."

Ashley Eckstein Interview [Voice actress for Ahsoka Tano], Clone Wars, 2013
https://roqoodepot.com/2013/02/28/ashley-eckstein-live-chat-transcript/
.....................................

"George is the Alpha and the Omega, and is involved in the story from beginning to end. On The Clone Wars, that means from the intial story idea until the final sound mix. I knew from the moment I got the job that The Clone Wars was going to be George's show. My job was to execute his vision and I have always tried my best to do that. As time went on George became more involved and wrote more stories and just about every story now comes from 'The Maker Himself'.

~ Henry Gilroy, Head Writer TCW/EU Author, Star Wars Insider 103


----------------------

Full article about Lucas' direct involvement in TCW From Star Wars Insider 103
https://ibb.co/JRzWBQN
https://ibb.co/w7DG9v2
https://ibb.co/2MhRXh3
https://ibb.co/zJBhGxK
https://ibb.co/F5JrX8J
...........
“George had bigger fish to fry. He was trying to change filmmaking with digital technology. He wasn’t going to get involved in the minutiae of the Expanded Universe. He, quite literally, had better things to do.”

–J.W. Rinzler,Author and Editor for Lucas Licensing/Lucasbooks, interviewed for SWNN’s “The Resistance Broadcast”

https://www.starwars.com/news/introducing-jonathan-rinzler
............

"You have to understand how George Lucas works, and I've been working with him for 30 years. He is driven by his own personal vision. He believes in the integrity of that, and he doesn't believe in letting outside forces like studios, research, or fans for that matter, etc. interfere with the story he wants to tell."

~ Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, 2010.
...........

Pablo Hidalgo Quotes on the Expanded Universe

"What George Saw as Canon"

"In the old days, George Lucas saw his universe as separate from publishing [EU]. He wasn't at all interested in connecting."
~ Pablo Hidalgo [Lucasfilm Story Group] 2016
http://i.imgur.com/6ZOkAau.png
------------------

Pablo Hidalgo on Lucas and the EU being separate Universes.
https://i.redd.it/3fpbkocr43q01.png
"He [Lucas] only considers his movies and TV projects as his universe, and told the Clone Wars writers to only worry about those."
-Pablo Hidalgo [Lucasfilm Story Group]

----------------------

"Canon is only what's on the screen. - Episodes I-VI, TCW and what's to come."
Pablo Hidalgo, 2013 -
https://ibb.co/S0fYM7q

----------

"From Issue 77 Of Star Wars Insider, Using Dark Empire & The Thrawn Trilogy As Examples. - https://ibb.co/K9PMgH3


"So so episodes beyond Return of the Jedi exist? Nothing beyond possible story points and ideas, certainly not fleshed out story treatments or scripts. Fans often wonder if Dark Empire or the Thrawn Trilogy were based off those notes or are meant to be Episodes VII, VIII, IX. - That's not the case.

Those works are the creation of their respective authors with the guidance of editors at Lucas Licensing. They are not, nor ever were, meant to be George Lucas' definitive vision of what happens next"
~ Pablo Hidalgo, 2004


------------------

"But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he directly oversees. […] Though these [Expanded Universe] stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are depicted cinematically in one of his projects.”

~ Pablo Hidalgo, Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion, 2012

-------------
As for the Force Unleashed:
Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo
He never considered it canon & was actively developing television material that disavowed it at the same time.

...................


Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo
It was gonna get into the origins of the rebellion (did a bit in Season 5).Starkiller didn't start it.

.................................

Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo
Yeah, George's ideas about the origins of the rebellion were quite different from what the game proposed.

....................

Sorry, I've been unable to think clearly all day. I get it now. One last
thing: what was the REAL amount of George put into TFU, in comparison to TCW. I know he didn't see it as canon, but knowing it would relax me.

Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo
Minimal. He gave the okay to make the game. He never saw Vader as having an apprentice.

..................................

Question - "My question is, *what did George's treatments for 7 look like? Iwould love to see if they fit the EU."

Answer [Pablo Hidalgo]- "They did not. For instance, there was no Jaina, Jacen, or Anakin." ~ 2017

https://ibb.co/N7HKCsF

-----------

"There was no Ben Skywalker in George's Universe. He came from the NJO team."
~ Pablo Hidalgo 2016
https://ibb.co/HDtXh6D

--------------

"Question from Today, but I thought this was pretty well known.

George Lucas never considered Jacen, Jaina, or Mara [Jade] as part of his universe."
~ Pablo Hidalgo May 2016
https://ibb.co/VDX2qvY

--------------


"Someone brought up Darth Plagueis and the novel with the same name. They lamented that this book wasn’t considered canon, however Pablo interjected that it couldn’t be simply because there are several contradictions between what George believed about Plagueis and Palpatine’s origins and what the author extrapolated. There was a rumor on the internet that the author of that book, James Luceno, worked directly with Lucas when creating the story, but Pablo shot that down saying that it wasn’t true. At the end, though, he did say that Plagueis as a character is still canon and could be used in other stories very easily."

~ Pablo Hidalgo interview, Library-Con, 2016
https://thecinemafiles.com/2016/10/...-head-of-the-star-wars-story-group-at-disney/

---------
A green robed Jedi cosplayer asked a question about whether or not there was a plan to bring back the green-robed Jedi (green-robed Jedi were in the expanded universe and never canon; they were allowed to marry). Pablo stated that these particular Jedi were used as a stop-gap of sorts between George Lucas’s policy of the Jedi never having attachments and the expanded universe clearly having married Jedi. While he said there’s always a possibility that they could be used in future stories, it’s not very likely.

~ Pablo Hidalgo interview, Library-Con, 2016
https://thecinemafiles.com/2016/10/...-head-of-the-star-wars-story-group-at-disney/
...........

Comment - "I remember George specifically saying Luke never married or had a child, I think."

Response - "That was his [Lucas] take, especially in reaction to Mara Jade. Jedi vows and all that."
~ Pablo Hidalgo 2019
https://ibb.co/njZvQFB
.........

“Well in George, George couldn’t stand Mara Jade, well he just couldn’t stand, couldn’t deal and they went out and got some sort of person who looked like she’d stepped out of a Cosmopolitan to be the model Mara and he just thought the whole thing was so not Star Wars and not his vision of Star Wars and once, I forget, I think Sue Rostoni between the novels told me or anyway told me they were killing off Mara Jade and I said ‘Do I get to tell George?'”

– J.W. Rinzler, Lucas Licensing/ Lucasbooks

http://starwarshub.net/2019/02/01/a...cas-couldnt-stand-the-character-of-mara-jade/
.............

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the biggest education on how George Lucas saw his Universe. Over 44 hours of his storytelling compared to the 13 hours or so he spent in live action."

~ Pablo Hidalgo 2018
https://ibb.co/ryvk5K2
..............

"Fast forward to 2012, when we hear George is looking to make SW movies again, I though I thought 'I wonder what next Mon Calamari's gonna be. And it turns out, the Mon Calamari this time was huge swaths of the EU. There was no Jacen, no Jaina. No new Jedi Order. Chewie lived. Not surpising, but there it was."
Pablo Hidalgo ~ 2016 https://ibb.co/nmjWcBM

 

There is also this TV interview with Howard Roffman who was the President of Lucas Licensing and was in charge of the EU from Start to finish. He is the horses mouth. No confusion here, the EU was an alternate Universe and only the movies [and the 2008 Clone Wars series] were canon.

"This is Star Wars, and I don't make a distinction between [The Clone Wars]series and the films."
~ George Lucas, SciFiNow, October 2011

There are also quotes directly from EU authors themselves acknowledging that they knew the EU was not canonical.
............

"That was one of my mandates, when I began the spin off publishing program it was a sacrosanct rule that everything had to relate to each other, be consistent with each other and be consistent with the movies, 'which were canon.'

We were pretty religious about doing that, our biggest problem was a guy named George Lucas, because he didn't buy into the spin off fiction and the game program and all the 'alternate universe' we were creating."

We wanted it to be one universe, we felt strongly that that's what it needed to be, but George as the filmmaker didn't want to be beholden to somebody else's creative vision.

So we would have very interesting skirmishes because we had a bunch of stuff that became, for the fans, pretty much canon [head-canon] about what happened after Return of the Jedi, what different places in the galaxy were called, lots of different things and if he was proposing to do something in the prequels that contradicted that we would have long debates which usually ended at least after the first session with "I don't care this is what I'm doing" , and maybe after the 4th or 5th session sometimes "Alright 'maybe' we can change it this way"

Now that everything is controlled by one central committee [Lucasfilm Story Group] we can have canon that applies to everything.

Messing with a Classic — Howard Roffman, Lucasfilm, 2017 interview. -
[12:40 mark]


........

EU Author Quotes on the Expanded Universe

"They’re there to be enjoyed as unofficial Legends. But, as Zahn also points out, the Expanded Universe wasn’t really ever official regardless of what the fans thought."

~ Timothy Zahn, 2017
---

In 2014, Disney declared the Expanded Universe was no longer canon. It became ‘Legends’. What do you think of this, seeing all of your work suddenly become non-canon?

"Those of us writing the EU were always told, all along, from the very beginning (have I stressed that strongly enough?), “Only the Movies are Canon.” Sure, it was disappointing."

~ Kathy Tyers, EU author Interview [Truce at Bakura, NJO. ect.], 2018
https://starwarsinterviews.com/various/authors/kathy-tyers-author/
---------------

That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”

“It could be an entirely new storyline, but if he picks and chooses bits and pieces from the expanded universe, we’d all be thrilled to death.”

~ Timothy Zahn 2014
----------------


"As far as I know, George Lucas himself is not involved. He has a liaison group that deals with the book people, the game people, etc. They do the day- to-day work. Occasionally, he will be asked a question and will give an answer."

~ Timothy Zahn, 'The Book Report' Interview, 1997


-------------
Question: I heard that George Lucas doesn't read the STAR WARS novels, or only reads a few. Has he read the Thrawn trilogy, and what did he think of it?

"As far as I know, he has not read any of the novels."

~ Timothy Zahn, 'The Book Report' Interview, 1997
..........
"In the canon debate, it is important to notice that LucasFilm and Lucas are different entities. The only canon source of Star Wars are the radio plays, the movie novels and the movies themselves - in Lucas' mind, nothing else exists, and no authorized LucasFilm novel will restrict his creativity in any way."

~ Steven Sansweet, Lucasfilm Author - Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Ltd.


---------

"[Steven Sansweet] was asked specifically if any of the characters like Admiral Thrawn and so on would make appearances in AoTC or the movie thereafter, and he responded quite clearly that that all the EU material is ”taking place in a separate universe”. [...] there were quite a few nasty mumbles from the audience when he (Sansweet) said what he said."

Steven Sansweet, EU Author - Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm

.....

"It is unfortunate that [EU author Karen Traviss is] moving on because [of] her opinion that canon is being changed. I guess the big problem is the assumption that her work is canon in the first place. After working with George on The Clone Wars series I know there are elements of her work that are not in line with his vision of Star Wars..."

~ Henry Gilroy, The Clone Wars series Head Writer/ EU Author [Comics] 2008

------------------------

Dark Empire Introduction - Kevin J. Anderson -



"When you read Dark Empire, or any of the other novels [EU] remember that although Lucasfilm has approved them, these are our sequels, not George Lucas's."

"If Lucasfilm ever makes films that take place after Return of the Jedi, they will be George Lucas's own creations, probably with no connect to anything we have written."

But in the meantime, enjoy these graphic stories, read the novels of Timothy Zahn, Kathy Tyers, Kenneth Flynt, Dave Wolverton, and myself.[Kevin J. Anderson]"

----------------------

"That said, I think George has always felt that the comics were an “alternate Star Wars universe” from the films. I don’t think he ever saw the comics as canon — although he did use them as a resource for ideas and images."
~ Tom Veitch, EU Author, Dark Empire Trilogy 2016


......

Question: I'm excited that Boba Fett is going to be in Episode II. Are we going to get more details about how he was once Jaster Mereel and killed another Journeyman Protector on the planet Concord Dawn before becoming a bounty hunter?

Answer: Highly unlikely.

My advice: Forget everything you knew, or thought you knew about the origins of Boba Fett. While none of us have seen a script of Episode II or have an idea of the direction in which George Lucas is taking the character, it's fairly safe to say that he won't be held to any of the back stories that have arisen over the years to try to explain the roots of this strong, mostly silent type. If there is any hint of Fett's beginnings, it will be all George.

~ Steven Sansweet, Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm/ Lucasfilm Author, 2000

.....


"Several times at Skywalker ranch, George was sitting almost within arm's reach, but I never got to speak with him. [...] His objection to Anakin Solo being the main series protagonist was, I think, possible confusion with Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy of movies."

~ James Luceno, EU Author
'Star Wars: New Jedi Order Round-Robin Interview" extra in The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force, the last volume of Star Wars: The New Jedi Order. The Del Rey-moderated conversation.
.............


"I thought about it for a while, but then the more I investigated the amount of continuity that’s already there, the more I started to worry about doing that. I think what worries me more is I don’t know where he’s going in The Clone Wars. I think The Clone Wars could overwrite a lot of the existing continuity and that could just be a real nightmare at the end."

~ James Lucerno Interview, EU Author, 2012

............

Other EU disclaimers -
https://ibb.co/GfwK0CB
https://ibb.co/Tr3dj06
https://ibb.co/19B66B1
https://ibb.co/p1mCFcm
https://ibb.co/rtSVh7d
https://ibb.co/Tcm7dFy
https://ibb.co/ygQXjCN
https://ibb.co/GRvmV7V - Jonathan W. Rinzler is/was an author and editor for Lucas Licensing's book division.

.........

 

Lastly, as much as I hate Disney, there is also the Disney Lucasfilm announcement itself that states that Lucas only considered the 6 movies and TCW [2008] as Official Star Wars canon and a part of his Star Wars universe. This is directly from the StarWars.com website -

"While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align."

https://www.starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page

I recommend everyone to read the full announcement. This bs about Disney 'decanonizing the EU' is rediculous. There is a reason they never quote or put a link to the full announcement because they know that not only does it not say it's 'decanonizing the EU' or anything else that was ever canon for that matter, it literally points out that to George Lucas the EU was never canon.

Discontinued would be the proper word.

You can't decanonize something that was never canon in the first place. And really, when you get right down to it, the only person who can what is or isn't canon is the person who owns the copyrights. That's what copyrights are for. They say who owns it. It was Lucas property. Doesn't matter what anyone else said, they didn't own it, he did.

Lucas was screaming the parallel universe and the EU not being canon from the rafters with his comments on the subject in interviews.

People don't need encyclopedias to remember 'their own canon.' and people don't say things like he did year after year after year and it doesn't mean anything.

"And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, 2008
..........

'In this 1999 Interview with Vanity Fair, when Lucas was asked if he Would be amenable to letting someone else carry on making Star Wars movies, “Probably not,” Lucas says. “It’s my thing.”

[That was 9 years after Heir to the Empire came out.]
.............

”The novels and comic books are other authors' interpretations of my creation. Sometimes, I tell them what they can and cant do, but I just don't have the time to read them. They're not my vision of what Star Wars is."

~ George Lucas 2004

'His own canon' is not his vision of what Star Wars is? heh

.......
"I like to refer to the Interview with Lucas in the Special Editions.When asked about the novels and what not, he simply says:

”Those are another author's interpretation of what I've created, and not to be taken seriously, as far as what is really going on in the Star Wars world.”
~ George Lucas

[Don't take 'his own canon' seriously for what is really going on in the Star Wars world? That'd be like saying "Don't take The Empire Strikes Back seriously for what is really going on in the Star Wars world." - Cuz, ya know, that makes sense. heh]
................

"G-Canon was George Lucas Canon; the six Episodes and any statements by George Lucas (including unpublished production notes from him or his production department that are never seen by the public)."

Those are all statements from George Lucas.
I don't question the maker.

 

@xDarthDarkseidx Yes, everything, books, comics and video game storylines are meant to be one continuity (aside from the what-if stories) though, of course, there had been retcons.

So yeah, if you want, you could try out some comics as well, there are some great stories there and they are all in continuity with the books you're reading

It makes me very happy that there are still people getting into the EU to this day.

 

Yes, everything was supposed to be on the same timeline. Expanded Universe material was written and published to be on the same timeline and tie into a larger media project. That created an intuitive hierarchy of canon. There were always contradictions. George, creator of SW, also contradicted himself. One of the most obvious examples is the time it took to finalize the appearance of Jabba the Hutt.

However, there's also all those media quotes that @GrimOnTheDarkside posted. Definitely, I have seen most of those quotes over the years. Those quotes can co-exist with the Expanded Universe material. There was the George-SW Universe. Then there was the expanded universe that tied into the George-SW Universe. Consider the amount of painstaking detail George put into his own creation.