For the past few decades, a vast assortment of Star Wars novels, comics and video games known as the Expanded Universe have helped flesh out the mythology behind George Lucas’ creation. A timeline of events following the original Star Wars trilogy has been gradually constructed by other writers, and while it was never considered “canon” per se, Lucasfilm has done their best to maintain some level of consistency within it. The time period prior to A New Hope was reserved for George Lucas to develop his prequel trilogy, but everything else was seen as fair game. However, when it was announced that Disney would be developing a new sequel following Return of the Jedi, this posed a bit of a problem: would they adapt or at least acknowledge some of these existing stories or would they start something new? Although we kind of already knew the answer to that question, last week Disney released an official statement on the matter. The Expanded Universe is now officially unofficial. Hit the jump for more details.

According to a post on StarWars.com on Friday, Star Wars: Episodes VII-IX will not follow the Expanded Universe because they want to “give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience.” Instead, Disney and Lucasfilm will be creating a new connected universe from here on in beginning with the new animated series Star Wars Rebels. This will be considered canon as will the new series of novels coming from Del Rey Books, starting with a Star Wars Rebels prequel written by John Jackson Miller. For the first time ever, there will be a story group within Lucasfilm that exists to “oversee and coordinate all Star Wars creative development.”

So what will become of the old Expanded Universe? Apparently the books will be re-released under a new banner called Star Wars Legends with the idea being that this all takes place in an alternate timeline. However, some elements of the EU will survive, including The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau and Sienar Fleet Systems, all of which appear in the new animated series, and they promise that more pieces of the EU may be incorporated in the future. I’m guessing they are just throwing fans a bone here and it seems unlikely that any major EU characters will show up in the new continuity. Either way, this separation needed to happen and at least they’re being somewhat transparent about it. What do you think, is this a good move or are you disappointed that the Expanded Universe is being demoted?