George Lucas did not consider the Star Wars Expanded Universe canon: "I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world"

There has been a lot of talk about the Star Wars canon in recent days. The Expanded Universe added new characters and stories to the galaxy far, far away. The classic heroes continued to wage war beyond the movies in comic books, novels, and video games, but all of these products became part of the Legends imprint after Disney purchased Lucasfilm. Today, all of these products are considered canon, although Dave Filoni - the chief creative director - believes there needs to be some flexibility to make changes. What did George Lucas think?

“I don’t read that stuff,” he confessed in an interview with Starlog magazine. " I haven’t read any of the novels. I don’t know anything about that world. That’s a different world than my world. But I do try to keep it consistent.” The creative explained that he used a ‘Star Wars’ encyclopedia to make relevant queries. That way, he could find out if a name had been used before. “When I said [other people] could make their own ‘Star Wars’ stories, we decided that, like ‘Star Trek’, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions.”

In an interview, Filoni himself put it this way: “Having  worked with George I can tell you that it was always very clear -- and he made it very clear -- that the films and the TV shows were the only things that he considered Canon. That was it. So everything else  was a world of fun ideas, exciting characters, great possibilities, the  EU was created to explore all those things.”

The tiered canon of the George Lucas era

In the George Lucas era, a tiered canon was established. At the top was the “G” canon, which were products made by the creator himself, so they had the highest authority (the movies). Below them were “C” canon (books, comics, video games), “T” Canon (television), “S” canon (elements that contradicted continuity), “D” Canon (parodies of the saga), and “N” canon (what-ifs), all in a hierarchical position from top to bottom. From this perspective, it can be intuited that the Expanded Universe could be part of the canon in some way, but in the end, it was Lucas who chose what was part of the continuity and what was not. All in all, the father of ‘Star Wars’ incorporated many elements of the Expanded Universe into the films, including Coruscant, the capital of the Republic and the Galactic Empire.

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’, the new Disney+ series, has caused a lot of controversy because one of the characters it features is not the same age as the one established in the Expanded Universe.

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