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After Disney established a new canon for Star Wars, I've found it relatively easy to determine what is and is not canon, but I've found it a bit more difficult to do so for Legends after the fact, specifically when it comes to what material is both canon and Legends (or perhaps more precisely canon in the Disney continuity while still being canon in the Legends continuity).

Obviously, Star Wars I-VI (and their novelizations insofar as they don't cause contradictions) are both canon and Legends, and I know that Clone Wars is considered canon and Legends, but that's where it gets a bit more complicated. The Clone Wars movie and presumably seasons 1-6 would all be canon and Legends, but this leaves a few questions:

  1. What about Son Of Dathomir (Dark Horse comic run from 2014 heavily related to Clone Wars and adopted into the canon)? I'm guessing this would be both canon and Legends.
  2. What about other things published around the time of the Disney acquisition, are there works not clearly marked as Legends which fall under both continuities? Blade Squadron would be one example: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Blade_Squadron_(short_story)
  3. What about Clone Wars season 7 (released on Disney+ in 2020)?
  4. What about other shows heavily related to Clone Wars characters like Rebels, Bad Batch, Ahsoka, etc? I'm guessing these wouldn't fall into both categories given how long after the establishment of Disney canon they were released.
  5. Anything else I might be missing?
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    A given work (show, novel, comic, video game, etc.) cannot be both canon and Legends, it is either canon or Legends. Elements of the franchise (events, characters, etc.) may have both canon and Legends elements. Wookieepedia does a pretty good job differentiating -- it has separate canon and Legends tabs for an article that has both canon and Legends elements. Elements that are solely canon or solely Legends have a "canon" or "Legends" banner, respectively. For example, your link to the Blade Squadron short story has a canon banner and no Legends tab.
    – Null
    Sep 21 at 22:00
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    "canon in the Legends continuity" is a contradiction in terms: Legends is by definition not canon.
    – Null
    Sep 21 at 22:02
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    @Null: I don't think that's entirely fair. The Legends continuity is certainly expansive, but even it does not include things such as a random fanfic that somebody uploaded to the internet without Lucasfilm's permission. So Legends has its own canon, which should not be confused with the Canon continuity. (As you can tell, I'm not entirely thrilled with Lucasfilm's terminology here, but oh well.)
    – Kevin
    Sep 21 at 22:42
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    Hmm, I don't understand the close votes - the numbered list seems more like examples of edge cases than a list of separate questions. The question "which works are in both continuities?" is fully answerable.
    – Milo P
    Sep 22 at 15:50
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    @Null AFAIK the "anything canon that doesn't contradict" description isn't how Lucasfilm has presented it—off the top of my head, there's nothing in Jedi: Fallen Order that substantially contradicts Legends, but it would be odd to describe it as officially part of the Legends continuity. (Headcanon, sure!)
    – Milo P
    Sep 22 at 15:55

1 Answer 1

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Generally, anything released starting April 25th, 2014—the date of the announcement of the new continuity model—should be considered Canon unless explicitly branded as Legends. Canon also includes the numbered Star Wars films and The Clone Wars:

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.

(https://www.starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page)

As you mention, Son of Dathomir is apparently part of both as well, since it's based on unproduced material for TCW and has apparently been published as Legends in some locales; Lucasfilm's Matt Martin appears to agree.

Definitely in both

As of time of writing, the following are all that's known to be part of both continuities:

  • Star Wars Episodes I - VI
  • Novelizations of Episodes I - VI where they don't contradict other stories
  • The Clone Wars film and seasons 1-6
  • Son of Dathomir

Gray areas

The film novelizations seem to have been largely ignored by newer canon, and the prequel novelizations in particular tend to contain a lot of references to Expanded Universe elements. I don't think Lucasfilm has explicitly said so, but from what I can tell, they only continue to be released as "Canon" to avoid making people think that the films themselves are no longer canon:

For example, the '76 Star Wars novelization calls Luke 'Blue Five' and has him do two trench runs. But if you were to slap a Legends label on it, you'd get people assuming all the events didn't happen. Not at all helpful.

[...]

[And if it helps put any of this into context; this is just my opinion. I am not (and have never been) "in charge of canon" so this means nothing as far as how things were done, are done, or will continue to be done]

(2021 tweets by Pablo Hidalgo)

The Fantasy Flight RPG sourcebooks have been published both before and after the Canon reset, and it isn't currently clear which (if any) continuity they're part of. Wookieepedia, for example, seems to have a best-guess policy depending on the publication date of the source and the origin of individual elements that have appeared in stories from one continuity but not the other.

Other cases

  • Blade Squadron was technically published a few days before the Canon announcement (April 22nd, 2014), but was announced as being within the new Canon:

    Red circle with text

    Fiction in Insider

    Starting with the two-part Blade Squadron story (published in #149 and #150), fiction in Star Wars Insider is a part of the new canon.

    (Star Wars Insider #150 via Lightsaber Rattling)

  • There are other Canon works that started life as Expanded Universe projects (such as Tarkin), or are otherwise compatible with details from Legends, but they're still considered part of the Canon continuity due to their release timing and branding.

  • Other works were released well after the Canon change, but were still released as Legends at time of first publication. For example, Issue 108 of the 1977 Marvel Star Wars comic series was released in 2019, five years after the new Canon announcement and 33 years after the previous issue, but is still branded as Legends.

  • The Old Republic has also continued to receive new content, despite being firmly set in the Legends continuity. However, in recent years, some of it has been explicitly inspired by Canon material, such as The Mandalorian:

    Game screenshots showing a character wearing Mandalorian armor, resembling the titular character from The Mandalorian

    Inspired by The Mandalorian, check out the newest Armor Sets, Weapons, mounts, and more, available now on the Cartel Market!

    Cartel Market Additions: Game Update 6.1.4 on swtor.com

This isn't meant to imply that SWTOR takes place in Canon, however, and it's unclear to what degree in-game items are considered canonical anyway.

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  • They've ignored the novelisations because they sell like hotcakes and make bank for Lucasfilm
    – Valorum
    Sep 21 at 22:36
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    Thanks for the answer! Probably one of the best examples of works which were released after the canon change, but which are still released as legends would be The Old Republic expansions.
    – bgeorge
    Sep 22 at 0:32
  • @Valorum I believe you but I cannot wrap my head around people buying novelizations of goddamn Star Wars movies. I mean, just watch the movies! I think... I'm getting too old for this shit.
    – Andres F.
    Sep 22 at 1:41
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    @bgeorge Forgot about SWTOR! Updated with that and more game examples.
    – Milo P
    Sep 22 at 3:37
  • This reminded me how much Galaxy of Heroes sucks. My daughter is currently infatuated with SW (her daddy helped) and we installed this piece of garbage... it's barely a game at all, the same click a thousand times over upgrades and kit and stuff and then fight some half-assed battles that involve more pointless clicking and then it's over as soon as it started. The same template as most mobile "battle" games with a SW theme. "Star Wars Cow Clicker". I hate it.
    – Andres F.
    Sep 22 at 13:50

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