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Star Wars is a franchise that’s split into two distinct continuities: canon and Legends (formerly known as Expanded Universe). Both canon and Legends share the original Star Wars trilogy, but then they skew off in both directions (past and future) within their respective continuities, offering fans completely different stories. This split came when Disney purchased Star Wars, at which point every novel and comic that had previously been released was relegated to ‘Legends’, while an all-new canon was to be shaped. And now, it’s time Star Wars Legends makes a comeback – and Marvel reveals exactly how it can be done.
Star Wars Legends can be traced all the way back to the ‘70s-’80s immediately following the release of Star Wars: A New Hope (which was simply titled ‘Star Wars’ at the time). Back then, Marvel Comics had the license to publish Star Wars tie-in comics, as well as the official comic book retellings of the films. It’s during this period when Star Wars was at its goofiest, with hilariously absurd characters like Jax (a green humanoid bunny who was a smuggler) and Don-Wan Kihotay (a fake Jedi). Before long, however, the Star Wars Expanded Universe took a very serious turn.
What many consider to be the first installment of the Star Wars Expanded Universe is the Star Wars: Heir to the Empire Trilogy (otherwise known as the Thrawn Trilogy) by Timothy Zahn. Those novels were published in 1991, 1992, and 1993, respectively, and they took place immediately following Return of the Jedi. From there, countless other Star Wars novels continued to expand the established universe – and the comics soon followed suit. Dark Horse Comics began publishing Star Wars comics, and everything published by Dark Horse existed in the Expanded Universe canon alongside the novels.
From stories that took place during the Clone Wars, the Old Republic, and even the distant future (i.e., Star Wars Legacy), Dark Horse helped shape the EU as much as the novels. After Disney bought Star Wars, the Star Wars comics moved over to Marvel Comics (also owned by Disney), and every bit of Star Wars continuity that wasn’t the films (or the animated series) became known as ‘Legends’, and immediately stopped being canon. From that point forward, every new Star Wars comic and novel is considered canon, with everything that happened in Legends left in the past.
Marvel’s Ultimate Universe Should Be the Blueprint for Star Wars
Marvel Comics Publishes the Bulk of Star Wars Comics
The Star Wars franchise decided that the new official canon needed to replace the Legends canon, but the very publication that puts out modern Star Wars comics proves that doesn’t need to be the case. Marvel Comics is very familiar with multiverse stories – from countless Spider-Verse stuff to extreme events like Secret Wars. However, the most notable ‘multiverse story’ is Marvel Comics’ all-new Ultimate Universe imprint. Honestly, that’s not even a ‘multiverse story’ at all; it’s just a separate continuity that exists alongside the main Marvel Comics continuity of Earth-616 – which is exactly what Star Wars should do.
For the most part, the new Ultimate Universe of Earth-6160 (and even the original Ultimate Universe of Earth-1610) doesn’t rely on the main continuity of Earth-616 at all, as they exist in a completely separate and totally independent/self-sufficient universe. It’s not as though characters are criss-crossing between the different universes all the time – truth be told, they almost never are. It’s as simple as allowing two separate continuities to exist alongside each other, and that formula has proved incredibly successful.
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Fans have proven that they can handle two versions of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Black Panther without confusion, because they know the difference between the universes in which those characters exist. Star Wars fans are just as capable of differentiating between a ‘canon’ Star Wars timeline and a ‘Legends’ Star Wars timeline, which opens the door for Marvel Comics to bring back the Expanded Universe and continue those stories from where they abruptly ended.
Star Wars Has Already Experimented with Alternate Universes
Star Wars: Infinities Explores the ‘Star Wars Multiverse’
Interestingly, Star Wars is actually no stranger to experimenting with the multiverse itself. Star Wars: Infinities was a miniseries that explored ‘What If…?’ scenarios regarding the Original Trilogy. What if Luke Skywalker failed to blow up the Death Star? What if Princess Leia was trained by Darth Vader? What if Luke Skywalker died, and Darth Vader lived? These were some of the questions Star Wars: Infinities sought to answer, which gave fans a peek into a Star Wars multiverse they didn’t even know existed.
Star Wars: Infinities is technically considered Legends, just like the rest of the pre-Disney Star Wars comics, and it proves that Star Wars has always experimented with the multiverse. Now that Star Wars is being published by Marvel Comics, the franchise is in the hands of the master of multiverse storytelling, something that is proven true by the success of the Ultimate Universe (both the new and original). Therefore, it just makes sense for Star Wars to bring back Legends continuity as an alternate avenue of storytelling – indeed, it’s done the multiverse before, so why not now?
Bringing Back Star Wars Legends Wouldn’t Even Have to Make Sense In-World
Marvel Comics Could Simply Bring Back the Imprint Without Telling a ‘Multiverse Story’
The biggest complaint fans would have if Star Wars did bring back its Legends continuity is that Star Wars shouldn’t do multiverse stories. Sure, Star Wars played around with the multiverse in Star Wars: Infinities, but for the most part it’s never done stories like that, and many fans would prefer it if that didn’t change. But that’s the thing, if Marvel Comics started publishing Star Wars Legends comics again, it wouldn’t have to make sense in-world – it could literally just be a separate imprint.
Again, Star Wars fans are smart enough to know the difference between a Luke Skywalker in a Legends story and the same character in a canon story, so long as the distinction is made clear by the respective comic book imprint. All Marvel would have to do is slap a big ‘ole ‘LEGENDS’ tag on the title, and that’s all fans would need to start enjoying the Expanded Universe again, just as Marvel fans are able to enjoy comics set in Earth-616 and the Ultimate Universe.
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There doesn’t need to be some big in-world multiversal event that explains the return of Star Wars Legends. Marvel Comics just needs to start publishing Star Wars Legends comics under that imprint, and readers would be good to go. All-in-all, it just makes sense. Star Wars should bring back the Legends canon, and Marvel has already proved with its Ultimate Universe that it can – and should – be done.
“}]] Marvel reveals how Star Wars can bring back Legends. Read More