State of the Canon

Before Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, hundreds of books, comics, and video games had extended the story well beyond Episode VI.  This material was the 'Expanded Universe' (EU)- the universe beyond the original 6 films.  It was considered canon, and authors had to get permission from Lucasfilm for any major plot points (like killing off characters) that would affect the galaxy.  The EU had furthered the Star Wars saga decades past Episode VI, to the children of the movie characters and beyond.

Since the original EU had been so robustly developed, Disney faced a challenge when they bought the franchise.  Do they allow the EU to remain canon- and severely restrict possibilities for new stories- or do they scrap the whole thing?  Disney chose the latter, and started from scratch.  Only the six films plus the two recent TV series (Rebels and Clone Wars) would be considered 'valid' from here on out, and Disney would invent their own EU- their own new canon- by releasing entirely new books, comics, games, and the like.  Though displeased that so many familiar stories were now invalid, I understood the decision, and let's face it- a lot of the original EU was poorly told, even if the plot was good.

Disney has now owned Star Wars for just over three years. In addition to the recently-released movie, they've produced a number of books/graphic novels.  The ones I've read are listed below, in the framework of the movie timelines, with links to the reviews for each.

Episode III

Kanan
Tarkin, A New Dawn

Episode IV

Vader, Skywalker Strikes, Princess Leia,
The Weapon of a Jedi, Smuggler's Run

Episode V

Moving Target

Episode VI

Shattered Empire, Aftermath, Before the Awakening

Episode VII (movie reviewed here)


Having read eleven works in this new canon, I can say with confidence . . . that it's not worth it, for two reasons:

1. Most of the stories aren't told well, just like much of the original EU.  Disney stated the poor quality of the originals as one reason for scrapping them . . . and proceeded to duplicate the error.  I don't expect Dickens when I read Star Wars . . . but some degree of quality is desired.

2. The new constraints- this is the big one.  The original EU was developed with the assumption that no new movies would be produced- so they could further the saga without fear of spoiling movie plots.  This is no longer the case.  Disney intends to release one Star Wars movie per year- either 'episodes' or 'anthologies' (side stories).  The new EU stories released prior to Episode VII contained little of interest and progressed the saga remarkably little.  This was Disney deliberately keeping a lid on things to maximize the movie's surprise, and they accomplished their goal.  Now that the movie is out, they can release books with more details and saga advancement, right?  Nope- here's the thing: Episode VII itself revealed little, and director/writer JJ Abrams said it was deliberate- that they're saving more surprises for Episodes VIII and IX.  That tells me that any books/graphic novels Disney releases will be subject to the same constraints that we've seen to date.  Expect very little information of interest in them- the movies will have the big surprises.

For these reasons, I plan on skipping most of the new releases unless they're the movies.  Perhaps once Episodes VIII and IX are out, we'll get good stories filling in gaps, but likely not before.