Everyone knows the Star Wars films, one of the most famous franchises in the world. Six movies, two trilogies. (So far.) But did you know that there’s a whole universe outside the films? It’s called the expanded universe, the EU, and its a whole slew of comics, radio plays, television series, and novels exploring the galaxy and the characters that inhabit it.

How big is “expanded” actually? The two film trilogies span thirty-six years. The EU spans over 37 thousand. It covers the founding of the Republic, the aftermath of the rebellions of the original trilogy, down through Han and Leia’s children, and up to the rising of a new Sith Lord.

New interest in Star Wars was sparked in the 1990s by an EU novel, Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, telling the aftermath of the Rebellion and the establishment of the New Republic. One of the EU’s most notably villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn, is introduced. (It’s considered the best starting point for beginners.) Since then, hundreds of licensed Star Wars novels have been published.

As for television, Star Wars still airs today. The animated The Clone Wars wrapped last year, and its successor Star Wars Rebels will enter its second season. Though its main audience is children, it has been praised by Variety magazine and fans of the franchise have grown fond, especially of female Jedi Ahsoka Tano.

Lucasfilm actually devotes a great amount of effort into ensuring the EU has as much continuity as possible, even to the point of maintaining an internal database, the Holocron, and forming story groups to approve or reject all major decisions by EU authors and artists. (There’s one such group at Disney right now.)

But, it is any of it canon? Well, it was.

The Star Wars canon is divided up into levels, the relevant ones being: GTCDS.

• G (George Lucas) – the live action films, including the three upcoming ones, and anything coming from George Lucas himself. These are the absolute canon. Should anything contradict a G level canon, G level wins.
• T (Television) – Clone Wars and Rebels. Though they are new additions to the universe, George Lucas worked on both, and so they take precedence over everything else, except G level canon.
• C (Continuity) – most of the EU, and it is considered by Lucasfilm to be canon unless contradicted by a G or T level.
• D (Disney) – anything created after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, except for those designated at G or T
• S (Secondary) – older or incoherent EU works.

However, the canon hierarchy has recently upset many fans.

Lucasfilm placing the main body of the EU has been non-contentious for decades, even after the new film trilogy was announced. The problem came when director J.J. Abrams announced that Star Wars VII will not be following the expanded universe. To many, potentially invalidating twenty years of relatively canon and acknowledged material seemed like a waste. However, the EU had been bumped down by the new television series, the shows had taken integrated EU elements into its continuity. In the end, one can hope that Star Wars VII will do the same. After all, it does seem like a shame to throw out a whole universe after all this time.