Star Wars is back, but my Star Wars is gone
Episode VII wipes the slate clean, for better and for worse.
With the release of The Force Awakens, we can finally find out what happened next to Luke, Leia, Han and the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
But for years I’ve already known what happens after The Return of the Jedi.
The Rebellion becomes the New Republic. Han and Leia marry and have twins. Luke sets up a Jedi academy. Chewbacca dies when invaders from another galaxy drop a moon on him.
These are all stories from the Expanded Universe, an array of books, comics and games that surrounded the six films to continue the story of Star Wars.
But all of those stories were effectively wiped out over a year ago to make room for the new films. Their stories and characters are no longer part of the official story of Star Wars, existing as an odd sort of alternate history.
I was two years old when Return of the Jedi came out, too young to see it in the cinema. But I was ten when Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy was released. Those books were considered to be the “official” sequels to the original films and effectively started the Expanded Universe.
The Expanded Universe kicked my love of Star Wars into hyperspace. They were the right stories at the right time to make an impact on my young mind. I read any book I could get my hands on, devouring every detail of every strange character, sleek starship and exotic planet. To me, they weren’t spin-offs or side stories; the Expanded Universe was Star Wars, period. It was as real as any of the films.
Sad as I am, I understand why it had to make way. The sheer volume of stories — stretching from 36,000 years before A New Hope to 139 years after — meant there was little space for JJ Abrams to go without stepping on someone else’s toes.
(A case in point? The theft of the original Death Star plans feature in at least three completely separate Expanded Universe stories. Now that all have been effectively erased from history, the film Rogue One is set to officially tell that tale.)
And frankly, for all the good in the EU, there’s also an enormous amount of bad; like clone Emperors, Hutt Jedi or a battle station possessed by the spirits of dead Jedi. And don’t get me started on Trioculus.
Still, good or bad, this is my Star Wars. The Battle of Sluis Van is just as real to me as the Battle of Endor. The plain figure of Wedge Antilles on screen is augmented in my head by the wise-cracking Wedge that leads Rogue Squadron in a series of books. Luke’s growing control of the Force is framed by the powerful Jedi Master I know he becomes. Film, book or comic; it was all part of the same saga.
I am genuinely excited for The Force Awakens, and I am eager to discover the “official” state of the galaxy thirty years after the destruction of the second Death Star. At the end of the day, I am a Star Wars fan. More Star Wars is great.
It just isn’t my Star Wars.
