announced that in preparation for the upcoming sequel trilogy, the Expanded Universe would be retconned past tales of the Expanded Universe will be printed under the Star Wars Legends banner, and a new continuity has been established that consists only of the original six films, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series and film, and all future material from that point onward. This material expands and continues the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from over 36,000 years before The Phantom Menace to 136 years after Return of the Jedi. It is derived from and includes most official Star Wars books, comic books, video games, spin-off films, television series, toys, and other media created before that date. Star Wars Legends, formerly known as the Expanded Universe (abbreviated EU), encompasses every one of the licensed and background stories of the Star Wars universe, outside of the original six Star Wars films produced by George Lucas and certain other material such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, created before April 25, 2014. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the first Expanded Universe novel, published in 1978 Today, it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga." ― George Lucas, from the introduction of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, 1996 Instead, they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided. But these were not stories that I was destined to tell.
" After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story-however many films it took to tell-was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy.