With the most recent film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that ended the Skywalker Saga, networks swell up with people eager to catch up with history.
After buying the Star Wars fanchise in 2012, Lucasfilm soon thereafter made the (slightly controversial) decision to take many of the stories that came before and designate them as Star Wars Legends, separate from what we now think of as the canon. But that doesn’t mean that Star Wars Legends doesn’t live on!
What is Star Wars Legends?
Remembering that the beginning of Star Wars began with a trilogy that seemed to be self-conclusive and as time went by, it developed into a Utopian and futuristic world; the content created to enrich it for 3 decades ranges from movies and series, to comics, video games and long, youthful and light novels.
In 2012, Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, along with the rights to many of its productions, including those of this great franchise. During the restructuring process, it was decided that only the main stories for its development would be taken into account at a creative level, but in a linear way, since the previous producer had enriched the franchise in the 80s style: creating hundreds of alternative stories and developing characters to emotionally strengthen the audience.
This form of work wasn’t the nature of a company like Disney, because the economic benefits they sought were totally different and, because of that, approximately 80-90% of the content was delegated to a legend category; anthologizing, like an “old testament”, all the facts prior to the purchase of the franchise and taking only the history that would allow immediate conclusion of the adventures of the Skywalker clan. The only content that remained “canon” were the six movies that had been released up to that point, and the animated television show: The Clone Wars.
However, Star Wars had already been planted in the hearts of millions of people and many have decided to keep the legacy of Lucasfilm and Lucasarts intact.
Therefore, we have brought you a beginner’s guide to Star Wars Legends; and don’t forget our chronological timeline which will keep you up-to-date with all of the Legends content.
How to follow Star Wars Legends?
The Legends content was created over time by different authors under the supervision of George Lucas and his company, and didn’t allow at the beginning an exact chronological sequence.
With the segmentation of the universe, Star Wars Eras were created, with a literary style and from the origin of the Jedi society until the beginning of the wars against the New Republic. These eras make it easy to find a specific type of story.
The reference point that cuts history in half is the Battle of Yavin, which takes place in the galactic civil war where the Empire was directly confronted with the Rebel Alliance, culminating just in the first saga of films published as of the year 1977.
Before that and after, the Eras are dated Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) and After the Battle of Yavin (DBY), which are part of the expanded universe. Here are some of the eras you’ll find in Star Wars Legends:
- Age of the Old Republic (25,000-1000 BBY): the beginnings of the Jedi order, the natural expansion of the Galactic Republic and the constant struggle against the dark side of light, the Sith order, are shown.
- The Peace of the Thousand Years (1000-22 BBY): it’s demarcated from the end of the Battle of Ruusan; a time in which the Sith order was believed to be extinguished and the prophecy of the Chosen One was formulated.
- The Clone Wars (22-19 BBY): The struggle between the Republic and the Separatists, in which, Darth Sidious, dark lord of the Sith led the separatists under Count Dooku, but also led the army of clones as Chancellor Palpatine.
- Age of the Resurgence of the Empire (19-2 BBY): This takes place from the fall of the Jedi order and the Republic until the first years of the galactic civil war.
- Age of Rebellion (2 BBY-19 ABY): includes the time between the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Endor, and the beginnings in the creation of a New Republic.
- Era of the New Republic (19-25 ABY): the triumph of the rebellion over the empire that gave way to hundreds of small battles based on complete takeover and reorganization of society.
- Yuuzhan Vong War (25-28 ABY): The last obstacle battle for the total establishment of the New Republic.
- Age of the New Jedi Order (28-40 ABY): the restructuring of the order and the formation of new soldiers for the benefit of the strengthening and protection of the new republic is shown.
- Age of the Legacy of the Force (40-140 ABY): the advances of the new republic, the rebirth of the Sith and the prophecies about the new Skywalker generation are shown.
Each of the comics, novels, movies, series and video games can be easily located within the Eras and, for those who want to know the entire expanded universe, this is the best way to dive into it from the beginning.
But is there an end?
As with all immortal sagas, the Star Wars Legends content must come to an end. There may be new Legends content at some time in the future (there was a recent comic that continued the old Marvel line), but for now we get new, exciting content from Lucasfilm in the canon, and just like Legends, some of it is good, some of it less so.
Even if we do get a continuation, getting caught up on more than 30 years of detailed history about the expanded universe will ensure that, in its followers, the legacy of Force will last forever.
