What is Star Wars Canon?

[FreezeC77]

This isn't just about Star Wars, but it does play a factor. It's really nice to see people in charge at these major franchises now actually EMBRACING things that happened 'outside' the "on-screen canon". For years and years fans paid money to buy novels, comics, play video games, whatever for these franchises but it was like a "Ha-Ha that's just fan-fiction you're paying money for. Nothing you see will have any actual impact or relevance to the "real on-screen story".

Obviously not all is going to appear and there are conflicting stories and things... but it's just really nice to see.

The tie fighter launch/loading sequences felt like something you would have experienced in a video game had graphics not been what they were when Tie Fighter came out on DOS

 

[fireproof78]

I mean, if that was the attitude towards ancillary materials how did anyone enjoy it?

 

[KepperC]

Canon is the theatrical movies, The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Mandalorian and most of the tie-in material since 2015.

 

[JD]

I mean, if that was the attitude towards ancillary materials how did anyone enjoy it?

I read "ancillary materials" from tons of different franchises and the vast majority of them don't treat that stuff as canon. I enjoy it because I don't give a fuck about if it effects the screen canon, I just want a good story with characters I like, in a universe I enjoy visiting. So far I've reads over a hundred Star Trek novels, at least a few dozen Star Wars novels and comics, a handful of Buffy novels and comics, a Supernatural novel, a couple of Marvel comics novels, and Serenity comics. The Buffy comics, and the Disney Star Wars stuff are the only ones that have been treated as canon.
I also own but have not yet read, a Psych novel, a Firefly novel, two Arrowverse novels, an X-Files novel, and two novels in the reboot Planet of the Apes universe.

 

[fireproof78]

I enjoy it because I don't give a fuck about if it effects the screen canon, I just want a good story with characters I like, in a universe I enjoy visiting.

That's my attitude as well. I feel like there is this obsessive nature to force canon status and that loses sight of what is actually the point of a freaking story.

 

[ITDUDE]

That's my attitude as well. I feel like there is this obsessive nature to force canon status and that loses sight of what is actually the point of a freaking story.

Obsessive or not, the term Canon comes from the "biblical canon". People have been arguing what is "real" and what is not for literally thousands of years

 

[fireproof78]

Obsessive or not, the term Canon comes from the "biblical canon". People have been arguing what is "real" and what is not for literally thousands of years

I am fully aware, having studied the history of biblical canon. Something I feel has a bit more value than an entertainment franchise, but my priorities may be way off.

 

[Reverend]

I am fully aware, having studied the history of biblical canon. Something I feel has a bit more value than an entertainment franchise, but my priorities may be way off.

Well Star Wars does have a way more coherent and internally consistent set of values, and to date nobody has been set on fire, so....

 

[fireproof78]

Well Star Wars does have a way more coherent and internally consistent set of values, and to date nobody has been set on fire, so....

From a certain point of view I suppose Star Wars has its positives...

 

[Masiral]

Well Star Wars does have a way more coherent and internally consistent set of values, and to date nobody has been set on fire, so....

Give it a few hundred years...

 

[Ithekro]

Will it be the Sequels Schism? Or the Apocrypha/Legends Hersey?

 

[suarezguy]

Ok, seems like bunch of new stuff coming from Disney for Star Wars. It's time to catch up...
Outside all of live action movies (and now The Mandalorian) I have seen virtually nothing else Star Wars related. I'd like to catchup but don't want to waste my time on anything non-canon. Are all cartoons canon? How many are out there (Clone Wars, something else, something else?). Is there anything based on Extended Universe that is no longer canon and I should avoid?
Is there a specific order to watch all these cartoons in?

It seems to have basically become very similar to the Trek policy (just with a few more winks and complications), filmed live-action material is canon, the current animation is canon (winking, a lot less so than the live-action stuff), the (Disney era) literature is (multiple big winks, kind of not really), everything pre-Disney aside from the films is not.

 

[The Wormhole]

the current animation is canon (winking, a lot less so than the live-action stuff),

How is the animates stuff "less canon" than the live action stuff? There have been tons of references to the animated material in the live action material, from Chopper's cameo in Rogue One, Hera being mentioned in Rogue One, the Ghost being featured in Rogue One and Rise of Skywalker, Maul's cameo in Solo, ships from Resistance being seen in Rise of Skywalker, and all sorts of stuff in the recent season of The Mandalorian.

 

[Turtletrekker]

How is the animates stuff "less canon" than the live action stuff? There have been tons of references to the animated material in the live action material, from Chopper's cameo in Rogue One, Hera being mentioned in Rogue One, the Ghost being featured in Rogue One and Rise of Skywalker, Maul's cameo in Solo, ships from Resistance being seen in Rise of Skywalker, and all sorts of stuff in the recent season of The Mandalorian.

Saw Guerrera was also in Rogue One.

 

[Reverend]

...and the voices of Ahsoka, Luminara, Adi Gallia, and Aayla Secura from TCW & Kanan from Rebels being heard in tRoS alongside the live action cast of trilogies past.

And that's not even taking to account how much cross-pollination there was in the opposite direction with many live action actors reprising their roles in animation; Liam Neeson, Frank Oz, Pernilla August, Forest Whitaker, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew Wood, and of course Mark Hamill himself showing up as the voice of Darth Bane!

Anyone that thinks the animation from TCW onwards isn't held in the same regard as live action clearly isn't paying any attention.

 

[JD]

And we had Forest Whitaker voicing Saw, Billy Dee Williams voicing Lando, James Earl Jones voicing Vader, and Ian McDirmid voicing the Emperor in Rebels.
They've also gotten a few of the movie and TV actors to reprise their characters in the games too.

 

[The Wormhole]

And they actually got Sam Witwer to do Maul's voice in Solo as opposed to the original voice actor from Phantom Menace.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I think at this point Sam Witwer is thought of as Maul's voice more than Peter Serafinowicz. I think it's probably the only case where the Clone Wars and Rebels voice actor is more closely associated with the character than the movie voice actor.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think in Star Wars they're called ion canons.

 

[Jedi Marso]

The canon is whatever you wish it to be. Just remember that it's yours, and others have theirs.