I have a slightly spicy topic today. This subject may ruffle a few feathers on both sides of the matter, but I want to approach this question from a slightly different angle and expand the discussion beyond the typical and sometimes emotional knee-jerk reactions and bring more context around the idea of continuation of the EU, how it would look, and other factors to consider.
Background: It’s well known that shortly after the April 2014 decision by Lucasfilm to reboot the continuity and effectively end the Expanded Universe storyline, barring a few exceptions, many fans pleaded and called on Lucasfilm to reconsider and have the EU continued. Although efforts were made to demonize the fans making this call for continuation, they largely comprised of mainstream Star Wars websites which were so eager to get in the good graces of Lucasfilm they quickly scrubbed their coverage of the EU and began parroting Lucasfilm’s narrative. While a few went as far as denouncing EU fans as problematic or toxic, EU fans themselves and even many levelheaded general Star Wars fans were largely united in the idea that continuation of the EU would be a good thing. More Star Wars would be good for everyone. It wasn’t until a few years ago that the idea of continuation, even among EU fans themselves, was considered controversial.
However, now in 2024, after witnessing 10 years of Star Wars content under the new canon, some EU fans even oppose the idea of Lucasfilm or their licensees creating new EU story material for fear of jeopardizing the quality of the content. Lucasfilm and their licensees are so distrusted by these fans that the few drips and drops of new material that we received since 2014, like the continuation of The Old Republic MMO or Marvel 108 Forever Crimson, are sometimes dismissed or ignored due consideration. Other fans, who are so starved for EU content, sometimes broadly argue in favor of having any new EU material regardless of what it is.
Lately this has caused civil strife amongst EU fans, some of the former feeling alienated by EU fandom for their understandable reservations regarding the quality of any possible continuation and some of the latter admonishing them for not holding true to the post 2014 motto of “Give Us Legends.” Any discussion on the topic of continuation largely breaks down on emotional lines either for or against. What both sides often fail to realize is the obvious fact that the EU is not being continued. This crucial detail makes arguments whether continuation would be a good thing or a bad thing currently moot until we know further details. As we stand now, there are no current plans for continuation of the EU. Therefore, it is nonsensical to argue about an ambiguous hypothetical situation. It is ambiguous because if continuation were to occur, it could be done in any number of ways.
The Present: It cannot be taken for granted that continuation in 2024 would be like the EU of 2014 and prior. Lots of fans see this alone as enough of a reason to not want any more EU, especially since the quality of canon Star Wars content under Disney ownership has been incredibly inferior quality. As much as many of us would prefer an EU exactly as it was 1976-2014, many circumstances of today make this unlikely. The major difference is that instead of the EU being the sole continuation of the Star Wars saga, it would now be one of two continuities alongside the new canon. The canon would likely receive most of the story project content and related complementary material such as video and tabletop games, action figures, magazines, trading cards, music, etc. Some fans, myself included, would struggle to ever get to a point where the EU could ever be the same as it was again without being the main focus of Star Wars because not everything would be connected in continuity as it was before, only what is deemed Legends or EU. This would be a major departure from what had been previously, where all of the ancillary material played a key role supporting the mainline books and comics.
Another key difference is Lucasfilm now has a much bigger budget than it did in 2014. After the prequel films concluded, 2008-2013 saw a shift in the Expanded Universe where the novels and comics began to support the one ongoing television show that existed, Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars. Now the Star Wars brand is primarily driven by multiple television shows since they are the biggest potential drivers of revenue. While novels, comics, and game licensees remain, they now play an even larger role in supporting television and film products rather than providing continuing stories of their own as was the case in the EU. Based on this current model, it is probable that if the EU were continued, it would be primarily based around a television show or cartoon, as was the case for Star Wars Visions. Under this possibility, any books or comics could largely be in support of this theoretical EU show.
The one major exception to the model is High Republic. Comprised of both novels and comics, the High Republic is a publisher-only multimedia three phase project announced in 2020 to give Star Wars literature fans their own stand-alone story that although is part of the new canon of the sequel films and television shows, they remain distinct, unaffected, and unrelated by the direction of films or television projects in process. Since the Expanded Universe is in an entirely different continuity than the new canon, it could share some resemblances with the High Republic project if continuation was only in the form of books and comics.
If continuation were only books and comics, how would that look? One possibility is to simply release stories either already completed or to finish works that were in process as of 2014. For example, we know Escape from Dagu was finished and is ready to be published if Lucasfilm ever chooses to. It’s also possible there were other finished works we don’t know about yet. Another possibility is to create stories that are designed to wrap up loose ends such as The Force Unleashed II and bridge the gap between Crucible and the Legacy comic series. Both of those possibilities would however ultimately lead to a conclusion like in 2014, where the EU once again would end. Some may consider getting more content a win, even just for a limited time. But if the EU was announced for continuation, it could be done in a three phase project like High Republic, which would take place in a new unexplored era, for example, after the Legacy II comic series. This process could be repeated in many different eras so it could theoretically continue indefinitely. Writing a new series in an unexplored era would be significantly easier to avoid continuity errors in the EU, which suffered from many errors in during its final few years as more and more content got jammed into already crowded eras in the timeline.
The topic of continuity for the EU, if it were to be continued, would be an important one. We still aren’t sure about the current state of the Official Holocron Continuity Database, which was used to help ensure all EU content was consistent with prior and future stories. Presumably, there is an internal database tool presently used by Bioware and Broadsword Online Games for The Old Republic MMO to keep their game and short stories both internally consistent and consistent with the rest of the 2014 and prior Expanded Universe. However, is this new content still being added to the Official Holocron? It doesn’t appear that Leland Chee, if he is still the one in charge of the database, is actively involved with the game, at least publicly. Therefore, there are well-founded reasons to be skeptical the Holocron still exists, but it would be an absolute necessity if the EU were to be continued properly.
One could theorize that if the Holocron no longer existed or needed substantial updating or restoration, it could be a barrier to Lucasfilm considering continuing the EU. Such a task could be seen as expensive or burdensome simply for a licensee to have to use to write comics or books. A possible solution to this would be to utilize fan projects, such as the numerous fan timelines, databases, convention platforms, and web resources to shore up any gaps or omissions in the Holocron. The Holocron has used resources in the past like Wookieepedia, Star Wars Timeline Gold, and discussion boards like theforce.net forums as channels of information. It’s true the EU fandom has built up many different helpful resources both for fan engagement with each other and with the EU including this very website I’m currently writing this article for.
Future Propects: While these websites may serve to both facilitate fan engagement with a new future EU continuation and serve as a technical resource for continuity, I sometimes wonder if they are working in the most efficient manner to serve these purposes. For example, the last few years have been a golden era for lost works coming to light. Although not all of these are technically officially declared EU and others are still in process like the Hungarian Han Solo novel translations, but we’ve seen Heart of the Jedi, Preying for Time, Lightsider, Tales From the Front: Jarnollan Expedition, Planet Hoppers Kashyyk: The Wind in the Wroshyrs, an expanded edition of Supernatural Encounters, and Escape from Kalist all released or publicly leaked in the last few years. But surprisingly, there has been very little discussion or analysis of these new stories on these platforms so far.
We should consider making the most of these resources to re-energize and re-prioritize efforts to align with our goals, whether they be fan engagement, discussion and analysis, news and current events, archival and presentation of data such as author interviews and timeline or database projects, etc. All of these resource platforms are and will be essential in a post continuation world if it ever happens. Consider how mainstay website hubs like theforce.net and even EU namesake sites like clubjade.net made an about-face suddenly and changed their coverage and focus from the EU to the new canon as soon as it was announced. Even sites like Star Wars Timeline Gold started new canon timelines in addition to maintaining their old EU material. EU resources and websites, even as decentralized as they are now with our networks of Discord and Youtube channels, should be ready to provide coverage to new EU if and when it comes about and the process and preparation should start now. I say this not as criticism or in claiming to have all the answers, but as a call for ideas. I do however hope these factors be considered in a manner that makes our efforts be as productive and engaging as possible for EU fans and serves are best interests, whatever they may be, as we hopefully await (or dread) the prospect of more new EU to come.
Comments