Roy T. Cook and Nathan Kellen
On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm announced that the entirety of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU) would no longer be canonical – that is, it would no longer count as a part of the “official” story told in the feature films and two animated television shows:
While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.…
While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars: Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.1
This announcement raises deep questions about the nature of fiction and the degree of control that the authors of fiction – George Lucas and Lucasfilm – have over what counts as true within the fictions that they create – the canonical Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm has, in effect, decreed that the stories told in the EU no longer count as genuine parts of the Star Wars story, stipulating that fans should no longer take the information found in these stories to be relevant to interpreting and understanding the stories, characters, and events in the movies and television shows – unless the creators re-canonize portions of the EU via their inclusion within future installments of the canonical films and television shows. In short, in this press release Lucasfilm is attempting to tell fans how they should understand and interpret the Star Wars fiction.
This question – how we actually do and, perhaps more importantly, how we should understand a particular fiction – is a deep question in the philosophy of art. Three particular aspects of this question are important here:
Lucasfilm's press release suggests that their view of the matter is pretty simple:
The idea that authors have this sort of absolute control over how their works should be understood has been challenged by critics and philosophers – most notably by French theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). In “The Death of the Author,”2 Barthes challenges the idea that authorial intention and authorial biography are essential ingredients for interpreting fictions, arguing that literary and cinematic works, once completed and made public, can and should be understood and assessed independently of the details of their creation. Barthes does not claim that intentions of the author must be ignored. Instead, he challenges the privileged role traditionally accorded to the author's intentions and biography. Barthes says that what the reader brings to a text is of equal importance with what an author puts into that text, and any interpretation that ignores other factors (including the beliefs, desires, and attitudes of the audience) is flawed.3
Barthes's challenge to the control that authors have over the meaning of their creations raises doubts about whether Lucasfilm can and should tell us how to understand the Star Wars fiction, and which stories we should count as official, canonical parts of that fiction. In addition, the way in which the canon/noncanon distinction plays out in huge fictional universes such as Star Wars suggests that the way the distinction is drawn is dynamic, negotiated, and participatory.4 What counts as an official, fictionally true, part of the story in such massive serial fictions is, contrary to what Lucasfilm suggests, not something that can or should be legislated by the creators of such fictions, but instead involves a complex (often implicit) interaction between those who create fictions and those who enjoy them.
The first Star Wars film was released in 1977. Two more films followed, along with comics, novels, roleplaying games, television shows, toys, trading cards, video games, and much else. Prior to the early 1990s, there was little official guidance about what parts of this increasingly immense body of material should count as canonical, that is, which material we should treat as reliably telling us what (fictionally) happens to Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and the rest.5 The most we were given was the oft-repeated pronouncement attributed to George Lucas: “The movies are Gospel, and everything else is Gossip!”6
This changed in 1994, when Lucasfilm released its first official statement regarding canon:
“Gospel,” or canon as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelizations. These works spin out of George Lucas' original stories, the rest are written by other writers. However, between us, we've read everything, and much of it is taken into account in the overall continuity. The entire catalogue of published works comprises a vast history with many offshoots, variations and tangents like any other well-developed mythology.7
This division of the massive Star Wars saga eventually developed into a multileveled hierarchy of degrees of canonicity that governed our understanding of the Star Wars fiction up to the 2014 press release:
G (George Lucas) Canon
Anything created, at least in terms of overall story, by Lucas himself, including the six (soon to be more) films, scripts, and unpublished notes.
T (Television) Canon
The Clone Wars animated theatrical film and television show.8
C (Continuity) Canon
All recent works, and some older works, released under the Star Wars title.
S (Secondary) Canon
Those works (usually older) that authors and fans are free to attend to or ignore as they see fit. Includes works that conflict with, or don't quite fit with, the G, T, and C Canon.
N (Non) Canon
Anything in direct conflict with G, T, C, and S canon, including intentionally imaginary stories, such as the “What if?” Infinities comics.9
As a general rule of thumb, a particular story in a particular category listed above was taken to reliably report what really (fictionally) happened in the Star Wars universe to the extent that it does not contradict anything in any higher level of continuity.
One interesting aspect of this hierarchical approach to canonicity – unique to the Star Wars universe, and much more complicated than canon/noncanon distinctions drawn elsewhere, such as the Marvel or DC Comics universes – is its apparent pluralism. Pluralism is the idea that there might be more than one equally legitimate interpretation of a particular fiction. In interpreting the Star Wars fiction, stories that fall into G, T, or C Canon seem nonnegotiably true. If my understanding of the events in the Star Wars universe contradicts a story that falls into one of these three categories, then I've made a mistake or I'm unaware of the relevant facts. Similarly, stories in N Canon are nonnegotiably false, since these explicitly contradict stories in the nonnegotiably true G, C, or T Canon. Stories in S Canon are much more flexible, however: prior to the April 2014 press release, both creators and fans were free to pick and choose which S Canon stories they wished to incorporate into their understanding of the Star Wars fiction. In particular, there might be two distinct S Canon stories that conflict with each other, but neither of which conflicts with G, C, or T Canon. As a result, one fan could incorporate one of the stories into his understanding of the Star Wars fiction, while another fan could equally legitimately incorporate the other story into her understanding. Thus, S Canon opens up the possibility for a rich pluralism with regard to interpreting the Star Wars fiction by allowing different understandings of the story based on different incorporations of S Canon material.10
The practice of dividing a fiction into canonical and noncanonical parts – or into three or more grades of canonicity, as is the case here – isn't merely an exercise in fanboy/girl esoterica. Once a fiction is massive enough – and the Star Wars fiction is certainly quite massive – the canon/noncanon divide can play a practical role in pointing to which portions of the story are required knowledge for understanding and interpreting the overall universe. Consider a hypothetical couple: Anne and Bob. Anne has seen all six of the live-action films, but hasn't seen or read any other Star Wars material. Bob has never seen any of the films or television shows, but has read all of the Star Wars novels and comics, except those that retell the stories shown in the films. Even though Bob has much more information at his disposal, Anne is in a better position to authoritatively describe and understand the main characters and events in the Star Wars universe in virtue of the fact that her base of evidence, while much smaller than Bob's, is privileged in its canonicity. In short, canon/noncanon distinctions make massive fictions like Star Wars accessible: familiarity with the smaller substory – the canon, or central parts of it – is both necessary and sufficient for understanding the overall story as a whole.
There are a number of other useful observations we can make about canon.11 First, noncanonical works are often relevant to interpretation, even if they don't describe events we are to understand to have actually occurred in the Star Wars universe. For example, the Star Wars: Infinities graphic novels tell a series of “What If?” stories – one for each of the original trilogy films. The first imagines what would've happened if Luke's torpedoes had failed to destroy the original Death Star. The second imagines what would've happened if Luke had frozen to death on Hoth. The third imagines what would've happened if C-3PO had malfunctioned during the exchange between Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia (disguised as Boussh). None of these stories provide any information regarding what (fictionally) happened in the Star Wars universe. But they do provide contrary-to-the-fact information regarding what these characters would have done in different circumstances. Such information can be important in forming our impressions of the characters' personalities. For example, in the first Infinities graphic novel, we learn that Luke's heroic drive to stop the Empire is not quelled by the failure to destroy the Death Star, while, as we might suspect, Han Solo quickly returns to smuggling work (although he returns to fight the Empire five years later).
Second, and as we noted above, canonicity practices are:
Dynamic
The location of the canon/noncanon distinction – the criteria determining what counts as Gospel versus gossip – varies over time.
Negotiable
The canon/noncanon distinction is not an inherent property of the fiction(s), but is the result of complex, ongoing, implicit agreements regarding what is to count as Gospel and what is to count as gossip.
Participatory
Determination of the canon/noncanon distinction – the negotiation that determines what stories count as Gospel and which count merely as gossip – involves fans of the fiction in essential ways.
Thus, a particular work will not be eternally canonical or eternally noncanonical. Rather, a work can be taken to be canonical at a time, but its status is always up for revision, with certain works that were once noncanonical later receiving canonical status, and former parts of the canon later becoming noncanonical. The latter, Gospel-to-gossip category is exemplified by the Star Wars Holiday Special, which was presumably meant to be part of the canonical story at the time it was produced.12 The former, gossip-to-Gospel category includes appearances of Aayla Secura in the Star Wars Tales comics (beginning with issue #19), which were explicitly noncanon due to the Infinities imprint appearing on the cover (they were also explicitly framed as not totally reliable holo rentals). Once Lucas decided to have Aayla Secura appear in Attack of the Clones – a last-minute decision13 and likely due in part to the extreme popularity of the character – her backstory as depicted in these comics was raised from N Canon to C Canon.14 Another key example is the city-planet Coruscant, which first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, was then digitally inserted into the 1997 Special Edition of Return of the Jedi, and featured prominently in Episodes I through III.
Examples of the influence that fan participation can have on canon include:
Thus, canon/noncanon distinctions usually come about via a complex, holistic interaction between the creators of a fiction and the consumers (fans) of that fiction, and there are numerous instances of this in the history of the Star Wars universe; at least, this is how it was prior to the April 2014 press release. But Lucasfilm has now drawn a new line, with what was formerly G Canon and T Canon counting as Gospel, and the rest being irrelevant gossip – unless the creators explicitly incorporate formerly noncanonical material into new installments of the franchise. The question remains: is it in Lucasfilm's power to tell us which stories we should, and should not, take into account when understanding and interpreting the Star Wars universe?
When reading or viewing fictions, such as the stories told about Star Wars, we are meant to imagine that certain things are (fictionally) true of characters and other things aren't (fictionally) true of them. We're clearly meant to imagine that Princess Leia is Luke Skywalker's sister, and we're clearly not meant to imagine that she lives in San Francisco. This much is right regardless of whether we use the old five-part, negotiable, and participatory hierarchy of canon categories, or accept the new, sharp, and presumably nondynamic divide.
But there are other aspects of our interpretation of the fiction that are deeply affected by the differences between the G, T, C, S, and N Canon hierarchy, and the new criterion implicit in Lucafilm's press release. Consider Zakarisz Ghent, who first appears in the Thrawn Trilogy as a “slicer” associated with the smuggler Talon Karrde. These novels were originally C Canon and very relevant to our understanding and interpretation of the Star Wars universe as a whole. According to the new scheme laid out by Lucasfilm, however, they are no longer canonical – Ghent never appears, nor is mentioned, in the films and television shows and is thus mere gossip, not Gospel.
What does this mean with regard to how we should understand what really happened (fictionally) in the Star Wars universe? Are we to imagine that there's no longer anyone important named “Ghent” in the imaginary galaxy in question? More importantly, perhaps, are we supposed to now forget about Ghent's interactions with Princess Leia in the Zahn novels? Are these episodes no longer relevant to our understanding of what sort of a person Leia is?
This last question is critical to our understanding of the Star Wars Universe. Labeling all EU material as noncanonical doesn't just erase the existence of beloved characters such as Ghent. It also erases many of the important elements of stories that fans have relied on to form their own complex understandings of the central characters who do remain. While many fans balked at the death of Chewbacca in the first novel of the New Jedi Order series, Vector Prime – crushed by a falling moon while saving Han and Leia's son, Anakin Solo – the stories that followed, depicting Han's grief, anger, and ultimate recovery from this tragedy, give tremendous insight into Han's character that fans are now deprived of under the new canon/noncanon criterion. Of course, these stories can still be taken to be relevant to our understanding of the Star Wars fiction in the indirect way that formerly N Canon works were relevant: they tell us how Han would have reacted if Chewbacca had died in this manner. But they no longer tell us how Han did react when Chewbacca in fact died this way. If these stories no longer count as canonical, then this means that Lucasfilm has changed the nature of the saga's central characters.
Based on our earlier discussion, it's not clear that Lucasfilm has the authority to legislate what counts as canonical Star Wars content in this manner. The complex canon/noncanon divide has always been something that resulted from a dynamic interaction between fans and creators – as well as being influenced by other factors, such as commercial concerns. While Lucasfilm's announcement might initially reshape the canon in the way they desire, there's no reason to think that fans will suddenly cease to have any influence on what counts as Gospel and what counts as gossip. Nor is there any reason to think that fans shouldn't have partial control over which stories they can legitimately take to be part of the genuine story of the Star Wars universe. In short, Lucasfilm's new criterion might change where the line between Gospel and gossip currently lies, but it won't – and in principle can't – change the way that canon/noncanon distinctions work, and so it can't change the fact that the distinction is dynamic, negotiable, and participatory.
The announcement by Lucasfilm outlines what they would now like to treat as canonical, describing those stories that George Lucas himself thinks “count.” But where the actual canon/noncanon line lies is a matter that's never settled and is always responsive to a number of pressures, including, but not limited to, both creators' preferences and fan input. There's little reason to think that Lucas can forbid us from taking EU stories into account in the long run. There's even less reason to think that our taking them into account won't have effects on where the distinction between Gospel and gossip resides. While the opinions of George Lucas and Lucasfilm in this matter are important, this doesn't mean that the fan who truly believes that the Thrawn Trilogy – or even the Holiday Special – should be treated as canon has no say in the matter. Lucasfilm told us their view on the matter. Now, fans should continue to fight for their favorite stories and continue to influence what happens in the Star Wars universe in various ways.16
One prominent author of EU materials has already suggested that he will understand the situation in roughly this manner. Timothy Zahn cleverly describes his position as compatible with Lucasfilm's new criterion, although the view he describes clearly is not:
[A]s far as I can tell from the announcement, LFL [LucasFilm] is not erasing the EU, but simply making it clear that nothing there is official canon. That's not necessarily a bad thing, nor does it immediately send everything into alternative-universe status. If nothing from the Thrawn Trilogy, say, is used in future movies (and if there's nothing in the movies that contradicts it), then we can reasonably continue to assume that those events did happen. It looks to me like the Legends banner is going to be used mainly to distinguish Story-Group-Approved canon books from those that aren't officially canon but might still exist.…
[E]ven if something from the Thrawn Trilogy does show up in a movie in a different form, we authors are masters of spackle, back-fill, and hand-waving. For example, if Ghent appears in the movies but never mentions Thrawn, I can argue that he simply doesn't want to talk about that era, or else has completely forgotten about it (which for Ghent isn't really much of a stretch).17
In short, rather than relegating Ghent to mere gossip, Zahn has decided to treat his own novels and other EU works as true in the Star Wars fiction until contradicted by future work, rather than false in the Star Wars fiction until corroborated by film or television, which is Lucasfilm's official stance. In Zahn's view, Ghent is Gospel until there are reasons to think otherwise. This is, of course, essentially the understanding of canonicity that was codified in the dynamic, negotiable, and participatory G, T, C, S, and N Canon hierarchy at work prior to Lucasfilm's press release. While Zahn has a particularly privileged position from which to negotiate canon matters with Lucasfilm, his comments nicely illustrate the resistance – that is, negotiation and participation – that fans of all sorts can mobilize in attempts to influence canon.
One final observation: the canon/noncanon divide does not merely tell us that some stories count as genuine parts of the Star Wars fiction while others do not. It also dictates which version of a particular story counts as genuine when there are multiple versions from which to choose. For example, the canon/noncanon distinction determines whether we should take the original releases of Episodes IV through VI to be Gospel, and the later Special Editions to be mere gossip, or vice versa. Lucas altered a number of things in the Special Editions, but the most controversial change is found in the confrontation between Han Solo and Greedo in Episode IV. Han kills Greedo before Greedo can get a shot off in the original version, while in the Special Edition Greedo shoots first, but misses.18 Clearly Lucas and Lucasfilm would like us to take the most recent variant of this critical scene to be the canonical one, but given what we've said so far, there's no reason why fans can't resist this interpretation, standing up for the canonicity of the original versions of the films via active negotiation of, and participation in, the determination of the canon/noncanon divide. Star Wars is, after all, about rebellion.
The conventions and practices that were shaped and encouraged by Lucasfilm themselves with regard to the canon/noncanon divide – in particular, the dynamic, negotiable, and participatory nature of this distinction – throw some doubt onto whether or not Lucasfilm truly has the authority to unilaterally dictate which Star Wars stories, or versions of stories, fans should take to be “genuine” parts of the central story. Thus, if you want your favorite story to be Gospel, rather than mere gossip, then keep explaining why it is or should be. If you're lucky, or your case is particularly compelling, then it might one day become Gospel again. Did Han shoot first? You bet he did!