By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Wars fans constantly debate what kinds of shows Disney should create…like, considering how bad the Sequel Trilogy sucked, just what kind of series would it take to bring back the old magic? As it turns out, the old magic lay in the golden age of franchise books, comics, and games that came out in the ‘90s. What Disney needs to do is create a Star Wars Expanded Universe show, but this will never happen because its very existence would be confusing to more casual fans.
Decades ago, Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy kicked off a series of interconnected stories from a galaxy far, far away…the literary equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sadly, Disney de-canonized all of these tales when they bought the franchise, which is why they are now published under the Legends imprint. But if the House of Mouse wants to bring that franchise back from death like a Force ghost, they must create a Star Wars Expanded Universe show that focuses on what happened to our favorite heroes and villains after Return of the Jedi.
The Star Wars sequels already covered this ground, which is why Disney will likely never produce an Expanded Universe show based on those earlier tales. Such a show would provide an entirely different continuity for the studio’s biggest IP and confuse fans who (like the average Marvel fan) would quickly fret over what they do and don’t need to watch to understand the latest Star Wars movie. That’s unfortunate, though, because such a show might be the only thing that can bring together entire generations of angry fans for several different reasons.
First, a Star Wars Expanded Universe show would provide a kind of alternative ending to what we saw in the sequels…in the books, Luke Skywalker is a successful Jedi Master instead of a hermit failure, and Han is a happily married hero rather than a dead, divorced dad. That alone would please fans of the classic Star Wars EU books as well as those who hated how the sequels did our characters dirty. For that matter, this show could effectively deliver the sequel-era storyline most of us were hoping to see onscreen after reading the books.
Second, a non-canonical Star Wars Expanded Universe show would give Disney the perfect opportunity to bring back fan-favorite characters without worrying about what that would do to the canon narrative. Fans loved the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, but such a TV show could also give us onscreen portrayals of fan favorites like Mara Jade and Corran Horn. Plus, we could see the kinds of stories that will never appear on the big screen, like Luke Skywalker getting married and having a child.
Finally, this Star Wars Expanded Universe show would pretty much have to be animated, and that provides the perfect excuse to bring familiar actors like Mark Hamill back to voice their iconic characters. It would be the best of both worlds, allowing Disney to give us fresh Luke Skywalker stories without having to worry about bringing the character back to life or animating him with some soulless CGI. Plus, let’s be honest…after the Sequel Trilogy, we could all use a palate cleanser when it comes to the onscreen portrayal of LukeSkywalker.
While such a Star Wars Expanded Universe show could unite hardcore fans, Disney will never create it because having two different continuities would be confusing for casual viewers. That’s a shame, though, because this could be the animated franchise renaissance we’ve been waiting for. And it would let both the fans and Disney take Kylo Ren’s advice when it comes to this franchise’s most recent history: let the past die…and kill it if you have to.
