Majority of Star Wars universe is now non-canon

Do you remember Darth Bane, how he was the reason why the Sith managed to survive as long as they did? Or maybe Revan's fall into darkness and redemption? Or how about a squad or Republic Commando clones fighting on Kashyyyk, forced to leave a brother behind? How about Luke's new Jedi Order? I could make a near endless list of examples. Well great news everybody! That's all NON-CANON now. That's right, even the legendary Admiral Thrawn himself is no longer a part of the Star Wars Universe.

Lucasfilm has decided to pull a completely dick move and classify everything that isn't part of the movies, the Clone Wars tv show, and the upcoming Rebels show, as non-canon. Why? In a terrible attempt to "unify" the Star Wars universe. What makes this so funny? In episode one, Darth Maul is killed by being cut in half and sent down a power generator. Then, many years later, he returns during the clone wars, somehow managing to cling to life and even getting to another planet in a system parsecs away from the location of his apparent death. Yeah, good job keeping the timeline coherent Lucas, good job.

I would like to say what many people are thinking right now:
Go suck Weequay dick, Lucasfilm.

PS: I don't know if you can tell, but I'm rather biased here.

Offical blog post

Considering that Lucas gave writers free license to write any storyline they wanted as long as it came after Return of the Jedi, or before A New Hope, it's clear that some things had to go in order to make the new movies, but for them to scrap all the work of some very talented writers is ridiculous. It seems to me, that if they had been willing to do their homework they could have kept many of these stories as canon, while still continuing the franchise into the future.

I really liked the Timothy Zahn novels, because they made sense. For Lucas to believe that simply killing the Emperor would return the galaxy to a Republic, after Palpatine had already dissolved the Senate, was a very simplistic ending for his tale. Zahn's books gave a more realistic assessment of the power struggle that would ensue with the fall of the Emperor. The character of Grand Admiral Thrawn was awesome, and I think they could easily find a way to keep such characters in the realm of canon if they had tried.

Disney is just being greedy, and making sure that all future characters and licenses are firmly under their own creative control, rather than taking the time to buy the rights to stories they don't already own. It's as if they have no respect for the huge fan base that already exists for the Star Wars Universe. For them to unilaterally dismiss all literary works as non-canon is not only a slap in the face to the fans, but the mark of pure laziness on the part of Disney executives who are too busy seeing dollar signs to recognize their alienation of their own fan base.

Edit: I also hope I don't have to see Leia and Padme dolls added to the already grossly bloated line of Disney Princess toys!

Well. Lucas himself was always clear that the Expanded Universe was non-canon, and that while he'll try to respect it as much as possible the things he has in mind will always come first. There was a lot of talk about this when Ep. I-III was offically in the makings.

It's a shame, but hardly surprising. The creative license that George Lucas had surrounding Star Wars was really one of a kind, not many will give their fans free access to their entire franchise and allow them to profit from it. Most people (*coughthetolkienfamilycough*) would sue anyone who even thought about using the slightest part of their franchise without explicit permission. What really bugs me is the fact that this is a huge "Fuck you!" to everyone who has contributed to the Expanded Universe. The EU is one of the primary reasons the SW franchise is still active and essentially as popular as it has always been. Heck, large parts of all movies except Episode IV relies heavily on the EU for making the universe so much more detailed.

What I want to know is whether the creative license of Lucasart is still active? Are authors and fans still allowed to freely make their own content and profit from it? Even if their works will be considered non-canon that is still an issue that needs to be resolved. It would really suck if Disney started suing everyone that made post-2014 SW material.

I'm not a big enough nerd to care.

While this is certainly a stupid move by LucasFilms considering there was nothing really conflicting about the stories they've now deemed non-Cannon, I don't really care to be honest.

Cannon or non-Cannon, I will still enjoy those stories probably moreso now than the movies or that horrible tv series. Besides, with the expanded universe now deemed non-cannon, it's an opportunity to make a more open RP thread based in it.

*fidgets around in excitement*

I don't think it matters if the EU is said to be canon or non-canon, we fans of EU will always look at it as real story, at least I will. The EU is without a doubt one of the best parts about Star Wars, it brings so much more to the franchise then just the movies.

Only fear I have is, as other people here has said, that Disney won't let people create more books and restrict authors in what they can do.

< The Disney influence has already afflicted the Star Wars universe. Soon, Timon and Pumba will be working in Watto's junkyard.