well over a hundred novels; each book drawn stands for five or more
Take the biggest side story there has been. For more than thirty years after the first Star Wars film, other hands filled the gaps: well over a hundred novels by dozens of authors, plus comics and games, telling what happened before, between and after the films. People called it the Expanded Universe.
Six films and one seriesstill count
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The Expanded Universenow 'Legends'
In 2012 Disney bought Lucasfilm and wanted new films. Twenty years of books had already told what happened after the last film. So Lucasfilm announced the fourth fix. The six films and one television series stayed the story. The Expanded Universe went on a shelf called Legends: still in print, no longer counting.
Slide the marker to the year Lucasfilm put the Expanded Universe on the shelf.
Slide the marker to where you think the answer is, then press Lock. Nothing is scored.
123
your guess · 1,990
the answer · 2,014
1,9902,0082,025
119901,990
220052,005
320252,025
Your guess: —
Two years after the owner changed, and a year before the first new film. Guesses often land on the sale itself, in 2012. The shelf came when the new story needed the room, not when the money moved.
A Legends novelin print
++
On the list?
After the shelf, could a reader still buy and read a Legends novel?
Yes. The books stayed in print; they simply stopped counting toward what happens next.
Right. That is the shelf's whole design: no book is destroyed and nothing is rewritten. The story is sold on, and the future is written as if it were not there.
Yes, and they still counted; only the name changed.
Not yet. The name was the point. Legends means the new films are free to contradict them, and the first new film did.
No. The books were withdrawn.
Not yet. The announcement said demand would keep them in print under the Legends banner. Readers could buy them the next day; the next film just would not follow them.
A rebootrestarts the main story
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The shelfkeeps it, drops the side stories
The shelf is not a reboot. A reboot restarts the main story. The shelf keeps the main story, the films, exactly as it was, and sets aside the side stories that had grown around it. Lesson 8's side clocks, the novels, comics and games, were stopped, and the films kept ticking.
Each card is a piece of Star Wars on the day of the shelf. Did it stay on the list, or go on the shelf?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 5
The six films made between 1977 and 2005
The Clone Wars television series
A 1991 novel about what happened five years after the last film
The comics and games of the Expanded Universe
Star Wars Rebels, the new series due later that year
The six films made between 1977 and 2005 → Stayed
Not yet. Stayed. Everything else had been written around the films; the shelf was built to protect them.
The Clone Wars television series → Stayed
Not yet. Stayed. It was the one series the announcement named beside the films; everything else on screen before it was not named.
A 1991 novel about what happened five years after the last film → Shelved
Not yet. Shelved. The new films were going to tell those years, and a novel already telling them was exactly what the shelf was for.
The comics and games of the Expanded Universe → Shelved
Not yet. Shelved. Everything outside the films and the one series went under the Legends banner, still sold, no longer binding.
Star Wars Rebels, the new series due later that year → Stayed
Not yet. Stayed before it existed. Anything made after the shelf was declared starts on the list, and this was the first.
3Stayed
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2Shelved
Right. Three stayed, two shelved. The line ran between the six films, one series, and everything else: those kept, the books, comics and games set aside.
Readerstwenty years set aside
↓→
The booksstill sold
↓→
Thrawnbrought back, 2016
The shelf came in April 2014. Readers who had spent twenty years on the novels found those years no longer counted; authors found their work set aside. They kept the books, and a way back. In 2016 Grand Admiral Thrawn, from the 1991 novel, returned to the list in the third season of the series Star Wars Rebels.
The owner
↓→
A hundred novelsoff the list, one morning
The shelf is lesson 2 made visible. The list belongs to whoever owns the name, and the owner can take a hundred novels off it in one morning without changing a word of any of them. Dragon Ball's side story went the same way, more quietly: never declared off the list, simply written around.
Ten novelsstill on sale
↓→
No longer lead in
↓→
The next gamefree
A game company announces that its ten tie-in novels no longer lead into the next game, but will stay on sale. Which fix is that, and what is the owner buying?
A reboot. The series is starting again.
Not yet. The games are not restarting; only the novels are set aside. A reboot empties the main list, and here the main list is untouched.
The shelf. The owner is buying a free hand for the next game without rewriting or withdrawing anything.
Right. Main story kept, side stories set aside, still sold. The price is paid by the readers of the ten novels, and the owner has decided the next game's freedom is worth it.
A retcon of the ten novels.
Not yet. Nothing in the novels is changed or re-explained. They are left as they are and stop counting, which is a shelf, not a rewrite.
Lesson complete
The shelf keeps the main story, sets the side stories aside as not counting, and leaves them on sale.