When Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, few people could have guessed the 40+ year legacy that was being born that day. This was a legacy that grew far beyond the silver screen, one that included TV shows, video games, comic books, books and more. All of this continuity fit on a comprehensive timeline that told one of the biggest stories ever imagined -- at least until Disney came along and uprooted the whole thing, which was probably for the best.

The House of Mouse has long seemed to be on a mission to buy up all media in the world. In 2009, Disney purchased Marvel, giving it access to a litany of established characters and what would become one of the biggest film franchises of all time. Disney then followed that up by buying Lucasfilm and LucasArts in 2012, and then Fox's entertainment assets in 2019. All of these moves quickly made Disney the most dominant player in the entertainment game.

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Luke Skywalker Green Lightsaber

When they took over the assets of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, that made Disney the guiding force behind Star Wars, including the Expanded Universe. That was the name given to all of the non-major motion picture aspects of the Star Wars story, which was a lot, to say the least. The huge gaps between movie releases were filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of novels, comic books and video games. There were a few animated series, as well, though nowhere near as many as the other media forms.

Disney quickly made a decision that angered many long time fans and declared the entire Expanded Universe was no longer considered canon. All that remained would be the six films that existed at that point and the animated series The Clone Wars. This meant that none of the other media published before the Disney buyout was relevant anymore, changing the landscape of Star Wars for many hardcore fans.

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For people who had invested time in consuming all of that media, finding out that it was no longer relevant was a tough pill to swallow. There were a lot of great stories and characters never seen on the big screen. It wasn't just a theoretical removal of all of this story; it was practical, too. Most of this content would no longer be published or available for purchase in any form. It was, in effect, erased from the timeline.

While it was hard to deal with at first, fans started to realize that this was the only common-sense approach to the situation. The new reality trying to tell stories that would resonate with fans while being burdened by so much previous history would have been difficult, if not impossible. No one could expect Disney to kill a new idea that could be a gamechanger because of a plot point laid out in a comic book decades earlier.

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Grand Admiral Thrawn

The Marvel Cinematic Universe deviated from the comics starting in its first movie for a similar reason. Some of the characters in their movies have comic book arcs going back decades, filled with contradictions and recons. Trying to accurately represent that in the movies and TV series that make up the MCU would have been impossible. The producers and writers took the elements they could work with from the source material and built the rest themselves. Disney then decided to take the same approach with Star Wars.

Over time, characters, planets and stories from the Expanded Universe are being slowly brought into the Disney-era continuity. A prime example of this is Grand Admiral Thrawn, a brilliant villain from Timothy Zahn's classic books. As part of the Expanded Universe, he was initially eliminated from the Disney continuity but he made his return in Star Wars: Rebels.

While not every aspect of the Disney-era has been perfect for Star Wars, it has produced some pure gold. Star Wars: Rebels is a great example as are The Mandalorian, the new run of Marvel Comics and the recent video game, Star Wars: Fallen Order. Several new characters like Doctor Aphra have also grown the fan base. The loss of the Expanded Universe was hard at first but it has more than proven to be the right choice for Disney, Star Wars and fans.

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