Star Wars Expanded Universe - History - The Expanded Universe and The Prequels

The Expanded Universe and The Prequels

Prior to the release of The Phantom Menace, Lucasfilm specifically prohibited development of the time period prior to A New Hope in the Expanded Universe (with the exception of the Tales of the Jedi series which took place thousands of years before the movies). The release of Episode I, however, created an entirely new storyline for writers to work from.

Since The Phantom Menace was set in a time of peace, it was hard to invent any kind of threat for the heroes to fight against. Thus most material that built on The Phantom Menace was either set before or during the film, rather than after.

Attack of the Clones, on the other hand, introduced another fresh conflict - one which fans had wanted to see for over twenty years. Aside from being explored in comics and novels, the Clone Wars would be given their own animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars, which would serve to lead up to the release of Revenge of the Sith. In this series, many battles throughout the galaxy are shown, with the Force shown to seemingly its full extent in fantastic fights, such as Mace Windu single-handedly destroying a whole droid army, without even using a lightsaber. The first (2004) season of the series concludes by introducing the newest villain, General Grievous, an important character in Episode III. Grievous was also a main player on episodes 21-25, released in 2005 and leading directly to Episode III. Following the release of Episode III, events between the two trilogies are now being elaborated, like the Great Jedi Purge.

In addition to adding new possibilities, the prequel trilogy contradicted a number of statements involving the Clone Wars in existing novels. In Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, for example, the dates given for the war were inaccurate. This was since retconned by explaining that the dates were given using the Noghri calendar. Also, the character Admiral Pellaeon makes a specific statement about fighting clones in the Fleet (presumably under the Republic) and that the early clones were "unstable, sometimes spectacularly so." This completely contradicts the prequels, but was later addressed in Karen Travis's Republic Commando books by the addition of the Nulls. And again, in book three, True Colors, Pellaeon makes his first chronologically appropriate appearance as a fresh Republic officer. As well, with all six films officially released, more and more ties between the prequel and original trilogy eras are being made. Rogue Planet's introduction of Zonama Sekot, for example, was both an important tie-in to Episode II and part of the resolution for the New Jedi Order series. And Outbound Flight linked The Phantom Menace with several Zahn novels (the Thrawn trilogy, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, and Survivor's Quest).