I didn’t want to hijack the Star Wars film project thread, but it got me to thinking: just how far from the events, people and time of the original Star Wars (aka, A New Hope) can a story get before it wouldn’t be Star Wars anymore? What makes it a Star Wars story anyway? The best answer I can think of is that if it doesn’t feature Force users who prefer lightsabers as their main weapon, it ain’t Star Wars. But I wonder if that holds as a hard and fast rule. Do you feel some of the Expanded Universe stories go so far afield that it doesn’t really feel like Star Wars anymore?
Great question!
It has to have one of the following elements:
- Set on a previously established world (e.g.- Tatooine)
- Must have characters belonging to a uniquely Lucas-esque species (e.g.- Wookies)
- Have Jedi/Lightsabers
- Plotlines involving the Empire or Galactic Civil War
- Use technology established in the two trilogies (X-Wings)
I’m willing to draw the line even at just having 1 or 2 in it. Jedi’s aren’t needed, as I’ve enjoyed some SW stories that just happened to be basically science fiction, but they took place on planets found in the SW universe, and there were references to bounty hunters or races that existed in the universe, but I didn’t recall reading that anyone in the story had anything to do with the films. Though they did mention something about the idea of a giant moon base being built. So I suppose that would include #4 as well.
I enjoy the stories more if they have subtle references to the films/major storylines from a new view point (ie: just as background news to give you an orientation of timing of events or such) but it’s not really needed. Just as long as it’s a good read and I can believe that it could have occurred in the SW universe.
For movies or TV, I would have to go with everything except #1. And perhaps not even #4. While I only ever really cared about the Empire vs. The Resistance, I can see a SW movie revolving around a resurgence in the Sith, and this time, it’s the Sith on the run from the Republic, yet trying to infiltrate, all after the events of episode VI. (This should’ve been the driving force (heh) behind episodes I-III, but it really wasn’t. Not really. Or, at least episode I should have started where III began.)
The most important factor for me is it has to revolve around characters that use the Force. Especially, the Jedi and the Sith. Without that, it would just feel so hollow.
As for non-cannon fiction, I don’t really care.
Any tangential connection to the original movies (and prequels) is fine by me, as long as the sound effects and music are authentic, and the canonical mythology is intact and referenced accurately.
I think you need to have the Force in there somehow, or else it’s just generic Space Opera. That and aliens and droids, I think, make the SW universe. An all-human cast just wouldn’t be SW, IMO.
at some point, someone has to say “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” 
And it had to be you, huh?
Boy, you have delusions of grandeur!
Ditto. Some of the best ancillary Star Wars stuff had little or nothing to do with the movie trilogies (I’m talkin’ here specifically about the Wraith Squadron books).
In a proper star wars movie a jedi needs to chop off someone’s hands or arms at least twice.
That rules out the original movie on pretty much all points except 3 and 4.
Well, yeah. Before Star Wars existed, there was no way to make something Star Wars. Well, other than calling it Star Wars.
I deny that you need lightsabers or Jedi to make a Star Wars story. A novel all about Han Solo and Chewbacca matching wits with Jabba the Hutt would be a solid Star Wars story.
I would just think it has to be related to the Old Republic, the Empire, or the New Republic; either during that era, after it, or in some environment that is clearly developing into it. Beyond that, I think it has to be substantially an action story: it can have elements of romance, horror, mystery, or humor, but it isn’t really Star Wars if there are no daring heroes/heroines, close shaves, and larger-than-life dangers.
I’m not sure aliens actually have to be on stage, but the story has to be consistent with a universe teeming with sentient, advanced alien life. And you could certainly do a perfectly good Star Wars story with no humans: an all-Wookiee or all-droid story, for example.