The thing with endings is that they create a multitude of feelings.

And every last one of those feelings are valid.

As you sit back and watch the hurricane of tweets, Facebook messages, and message board posts unfold, you can see that the reactions are all over the place. Some folks are excited at the prospect of new Star Wars novels that are a greater part of the story than ever before. Others are angry that the stories they’ve held near and dear for so long are no longer as closely tied to that tapestry anymore. There’s happiness, there’s sadness. All of this happens when something comes to an end.

It’s easy to look at those who are upset and sad about the end of the Expanded Universe as we know it and be confused over their feelings and reactions. Why would you be upset when there’s so much more new Star Wars coming?  For most of those people, they are happy about new Star Wars content. Simultaneously, today was the conclusion of a long, ongoing story. Just like the finale of a beloved film or television show can create sadness, so too can the end of an era in Star Wars publishing.

Endings can be a sad thing. For some, the sting will linger for a while. The Expanded Universe was their Star Wars. They were the stories and characters that resonated with them most. Adventures seared into their memories. While those adventures still sit in books on bookshelves to be recalled and to look back upon, there’s a hint of melancholy that those tales won’t be added to and grown again. The written saga that many grew up with and spent so many years immersed in has drawn to a close.

But under that sadness is growing excitement. Excitement that this new era brings new and familiar scribes to pen new stories about characters that have long deserved their own books. These scribes have a blank canvas and are armed with the themes and lessons learned from the Expanded Universe of old. They have the ability to even lift elements from that old EU and place it into the new literature. This new era promises a unified vision for storytelling across all mediums that before fans could have only dreamed of.

As time marches on towards that new era, that excitement grows. The sting of an ending gives way to the hope for future greatness. For new adventures with new faces. Star Wars, that universe we love so much, has a new lease on life and a host of new possibilities. No longer are these novels limited to the niche sphere it once occupied. More than ever, this literature will be able to craft and shape the franchise.

These fans know that they should be excited for new Star Wars. Deep down, many of them are. But you don’t have to tell them that they shouldn’t be sad. They have the right to feel that way, just give them time. Slowly but surely, that melancholy they feel will give way and they begin looking forward once more to a new tome chronicling the stories of that Galaxy Far, Far Away.

Here we go.

For over 35 years, the Expanded Universe has enriched the Star Wars experience for fans seeking to continue the adventure beyond what is seen on the screen. When he created Star Wars, George Lucas built a universe that sparked the imagination, and inspired others to create. He opened up that universe to be a creative space for other people to tell their own tales. This became the Expanded Universe, or EU, of comics, novels, videogames, and more.

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.

Now, with an exciting future filled with new cinematic installments of Star Wars, all aspects ofStar Wars storytelling moving forward will be connected. Under Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s direction, the company for the first time ever has formed a story group to oversee and coordinate all Star Wars creative development.

“We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon,” said Kennedy. “We’re set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before.”

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.

Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner.

On the screen, the first new canon to appear will be Star Wars Rebels. In print, the first new books to come from this creative collaboration include novels from Del Rey Books. First to be announced, John Jackson Miller is writing a novel that precedes the events of Star Wars Rebels and offers insight into a key character’s backstory, with input directly from executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman.

And this is just the beginning of a creatively aligned program of Star Wars storytelling created by the collaboration of incredibly talented people united by their love of that galaxy far, far away…

As we’ve long suspected, the new films will not be beholden to the Expanded Universe (nor should it be). The EU as it exists now will continue to be sold under the Legends banner, but it seems unlikely that anything will continue to be written in that universe. Projects moving forward will continue to draw inspiration and ideas from the old EU.

The first novel of this “new” Expanded Universe, A New Dawn, will be written by John Jackson Miller. It’ll be set pre-Rebels and, judging from the cover, looks like it will heavily feature Kanan and Hera. Color us excited that JJM is heading off this new endeavor. 

Things are changing and changing quickly. Exciting, no?

Nanci and Brian will certainly be discussing these developments on the podcast tomorrow. Stay tuned.