Star Wars in other media

This spin-off material is licensed and moderated by Lucasfilm, though during his involvement with the franchise Star Wars creator George Lucas reserved the right to both draw from and contradict it in his own works.

Such derivative works have been produced concurrently with, between, and after the original, prequel, and sequel trilogies, as well as the spin-off films and television series.

Most works produced after April 25, 2014 are part of the official canon as defined by Lucasfilm, although a handful of Legends media has still been released after said date.

Lucas later commissioned Alan Dean Foster, who ghostwrote the novelization, to write a sequel, which resulted in Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978).

In 1987, the fan newsletter Bantha Tracks was absorbed by the official Lucasfilm magazine, which focused on the company's projects outside of Star Wars.

[10] Heir to the Empire, which reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list,[15] began what would become a large collection of works set before, between, and especially after the original films.

[16] It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade, and was followed by the sequels Dark Force Rising (1992) and The Last Command (1993).

[16][18][19] In The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests this renewed interest was a factor in Lucas's decision to create the prequel trilogy.

Zahn was critical of the concept of resurrecting Emperor Palpatine through cloned bodies, feeling it undermined and contradicted the meaning of the ending of Return of the Jedi.

[22] In 1993, Dark Horse published Tales of the Jedi, expanding the fictional universe to the time of the Old Republic, approximately 4,000 years before the films.

A new series set between 25 and 30 years after the original films, The New Jedi Order (1999–2003), was written by multiple authors and introduced a new threat: the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy.

The character Aayla Secura, introduced in 2000 in the Republic comic book series, appears in Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002).

[33][34] The 2003 animated series Clone Wars and various spin-off books, comics, and video games explore the titular conflict in more detail leading up to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005).

LucasBooks works diligently to keep the continuing Star Wars expanded universe cohesive and uniform, but stylistically, there is always room for variation.

"[51] The Holocron was divided into five levels of canon (in order of precedence): In October 30, 2012, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for US$4.06 billion (equivalent to about US$5.39B in 2023 due to inflation).

[59] To prevent the planned sequel trilogy from being beholden to and restrained by the plotlines of the Expanded Universe works, the choice was made to discard that continuity.

[60][63][64] Chee said in a 2014 Twitter post that a "primary goal" of the story group would be to replace the previous hierarchical canon (of the Holocron) with one cohesive one.

The Bad Batch executive producer Jennifer Corbett explained that "Everything we did was for a reason and it might not match 100% but it's sort of just wanting to honor what existed but also give another take on it in this story.

"[60][63] It was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it.

[60][63][72] The first new canonical novel was A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, published in September 2014,[73] acting as a prologue to the animated television series Star Wars Rebels, which was released a month later.

[85] The Mandalorian, a post-Return of the Jedi live-action series written by Jon Favreau premiered in late 2019 on the Disney streaming service Disney+.

The line takes place 200 years prior to the events of The Phantom Menace and will not overlap any films or series currently planned for production.

[87] In December 2020, multiple live-action series were announced for Disney+, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Lando, three Mandalorian spin-offs, and The Acolyte (set during the High Republic).