Many Star Wars fans have abandoned the franchise in the years since Disney took over. Some fans simply don’t like having more females and people of color in Star Wars. Other fans left when the company renamed the Star Wars EU Legends and de-canonized decades of books and comics. Disney could get those fans back in a heartbeat if they just did something new with the Legends continuity instead of letting it rot and fester.
Disney Is Sitting On A Gold Mine
This is not an argument against DEI in Star Wars or a protest against the “Legends was never actually canon” argument that new fans like to use to defend Disney’s decision to scrap the old Expanded Universe. This is simply a plea to Disney to either adapt some Legend stories or create some new ones. The company that claims to be having financial problems is sitting on a gold mine, and it’s literally doing nothing with it.
Lucasfilm Declares Legends Non-Canon
On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm officially made anything outside of the movies and The Clone Wars cartoon non-canon to the main Star Wars universe. Now, it would have been one thing if, from there, they just pretended that the EU didn’t exist as they do with the non-Special Editions of the original trilogy. But they didn’t. Disney went through the hassle of actually renaming the discarded Star Wars canon Legends and republishing old material under that banner.
The implication seemed to be at the time that Disney would potentially develop new content set in the Legends continuity. Books that take place after the death of Luke’s wife, Mara Jade, and his nephew-turned-Sith Lord Jacen. Stories that would detail how that version of Luke lived out his twilight years.
Disney+ Is The Perfect Starting Point
Perhaps a Star Wars Legends-branded anthology on Disney + that adapts different non-canon stories from the EU would be a good idea. They came so close with Star Wars Visions, even going so far as to stress that Visions wasn’t canon. So they’re okay with releasing non-canon material after all? At this point, it really feels like Lucasfilm is just messing with Legends fans.
Instead, after creating the Legends brand and republishing old material under that name, Disney hasn’t released anything of note set in the Legends continuity. Oh, there were a few things already in production that came out after 2014. A few projects that were too far along to stop—mostly a few Dark Horse comics and some RPG sourcebooks—but nothing serious.
Legends Could Fix The Sequel Trilogy
And we have to ask, why? It would have no effect on the canon projects coming out to produce a cheap animated series based on Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy or Brian Daley’s trio of Han Solo novels that take place prior to A New Hope. We get not adapting the original Thrawn trilogy in fear that it could interfere with the canon Thrawn stuff that Dave Filoni is working on, but everything else should be fair game.
Disney could even take a page from DC’s Batman ’89 comic, which continues the universe of the two Tim Burton Batman films by introducing familiar Batman villains that Burton never got to in his style. Imagine a new novel or comic that introduces the Legends versions of Rey, Finn, and Poe. Maybe Disney’s Legends Kylo Ren wouldn’t even be Han and Leia’s kid but Luke Skywalker’s son, Ben.
Luke Has A Son In Legends
Yeah, that’s right, in Legends, Luke Skywalker has a son. How cool would it be to give him a series?
Despite what some online trolls would have, there are actually a lot of fans who love the new stuff Disney is putting out. That’s why we’re not suggesting anything that would alienate those fans. But throwing fans of Legends a bone would not only go a long way toward healing the fandom but would net Disney a fortune.
Don’t you like money, Disney? Don’t you want to sell more Star Wars books, T-shirts, toys, etc.? If so, then don’t ignore Legends. Embrace it.
