Click on the era symbol for description 

Click on the title to go that particular era

 

The History of Space Opera

Lost (and found) Star Wars stories

Articles, columns and quotes in defense of the Star Wars Expanded Universe!

 

The goal of the all-volunteer, non-profit Twin Suns Foundation is to promote reading and writing around the world, and serve as the voice for the Star Wars Expanded Universe Movement! Fundraisers, book donations, billboards, check 'em all out today!

Eddie Van Der Heidjen's amazingly exhaustive page!

 

Robert Mullin's wildly unique chronology project attempts to fuse the EU canon with Disney's.

 

Jedi Sabacc

 

Long forgotten, un-reprinted Star Wars adventures and nonfiction literature

 

starwarz.com

TBone's famous Star Wars site include cut-scenes, scripts, and so much more!

 

Plif lives with Marvel Star Wars stats and loads of fun pages!

 

Fascinating study of the changes made to the original trilogy

 

This site's original pre-Filoni Clone Wars Timeline

The Clone Wars Viewing Order

 

Another chronology of the Clone Wars incorporates older stories in relation to the animated series

 

Everything you always wanted to know about the Star Wars Holiday Special!

 

Archived News 2018

 

12/4/18 Thanks to Robert Newnham!

Thanks, Robert, for correcting the third season of Clone Wars webstrips!

 

11/25/18 Thanks to Robert Newnham and Alexander Vinogradov!

Thanks, Robert, for getting me a fixed page of Rookiees: No Turning Back! Also, thanks Alex for reminding to update the Lostworlds page!

 

11/19/18 Thanks to Alex Schloesser and Mario Alberto Escamilla!

Thanks, Alex, for pointing some flaws in my Clone Wars depiction of "Downfall of a Droid" and thanks Mario for finding some errors in "Cult Encounters"!

 

11/14/18 Supernatural Encounters in Russia and Latin America!

Just a heads-up for my Star Wars brothers in Latin-speaking countries and Russia: Cult Encounters and Supernatural Encounters are currently being translated into Spanish and Russian! :) Thank you to the hard work of the translators, Mario Alberto Escamilla and Alexander Vinogradov! You guys rock!

 

10/31/18 The Supernatural Is Upon Us!

At long last, the unpublished Star Wars novel, conceived in 1999, and commissioned for LFL's online Hyperspace site in 2005, is finally here: Supernatural Encounters: The Trial and Transformation of Arhul Hextrophon can be found here!

 

Update: By year's end, I hope to put out a version with endnotes, a few minor cut-scenes (possibly inserted back in, to be noted in the endnotes), and a proper cover with the PDF.

 

10/1/18 Halloween is Soon to Be Upon Us...

...and with it the supernatural! Supernatural Encounters, that is! The long-anticipated sequel to Joe Bongiorno and Rich Handley's Cult Encounters will unveil the dark and fantastical adventures of Arhul Hextrophon as he ventures into eldritch realm of Otherspace!

 

In anticipation of this, I've made some minor corrections to Cult Encounters (which had some typos).  Expect Supernatural Encounters: The Trial and Transformation of Arhul Hextrophon to debut here on October 31!

 

9/27/18 Most Lost Stories Surface

The 2006 webstrips Rookies: Rendezvous and its sequel Rookies: No Turning Back are now online here! (Sadly, there is not yet any word on the third strip, Rookies: No Way Out).  Special thanks to Robert Newnham for his diligent efforts!

 

9/26/18 Thanks!

Special thanks to Joseph Anthony Marchetti and Daniel Cutting for their eagle eyes and willingness to pitch in to help make this site a better and more accurate repository of information! You guys all rock!

 

9/19/18 Another "Lost Tale" is Released!

EU fans, rejoice! The lost sequel to "Crimson Bounty," by Charlene Newcomb and Rich Handley, intended for the Star Wars Adventure Journal #18 has been released exclusively here on starwarstimeline.net! Called "The Contact," it continues the adventures of Celia Durasha, better known as Crimson, whose story first began in "Crimson Jailbreak" (Adventure Journal #5), "A Certain Point of View" (Adventure Journal #8), and the aforementioned "Crimson Bounty" (Adventure Journal #14).

 

Included are the original RPG stats and background material, such as the original proposal, illustration suggestions, bios, and a short interview with author Rich Handley on the story's genesis and the sequels that might have been!

 

Check it out here!

 

Update 9/20: I had accidentally left out Charlene Newcomb's answers to my questions. These have now been included!

 

9/13/18 For the Purists...

I've finally gotten around to updating the era pages and removed most, if not all, of the post-Disney material from it. Some context for those of you coming here anew: After Lucasfilm (under Kathleen Kennedy's direction) announced that they were de-canonizing the Expanded Universe, there was a schism amongst Star Wars fans, some sticking only to the pre-Disney buyout, others sticking only to the post-Disney buyout, and some accepting aspects of both. The position of this site was that any story post-Disney that *could* reasonably fit into the Expanded Universe should, while everything else would be excised to Infinities. Thus, the Complete Saga page includes things like Rogue One, Rebels, and various books and comic-books that do no harm to the EU. EU purists were not pleased, so I determined to keep the individual era pages free from anything post-Disney, with the exceptions of the later Timothy Zahn novels, as he's explicitly indicated that these books are intended to fit both continuities. Of course, they create a gray area in regards to the animated series Rebels, as they deal with characters and situations from that series, but it doesn't necessitate that one watch the series to enjoy the novels. I've also exempted Tarkin, as that was written with the intent of being part of the Expanded Universe, and Ahsoka, as that was written with the intent on concluding her arc from the animated Clone Wars series.

 

9/10/18 Added some Old Republic Titles

Special thanks to Alex Payne for pointing out these missing short stories from the swtor.com website: "The Price of Power," (3643 BBY) "One Night in the Dealer's Den" (3638 BBY) and "Regrets" (3638 BBY).

 

7/9/18 Fantasy Flight Games Reprints Original West End Games Books

The Roleplaying Game: 1st edition (40001) and the Star Wars Sourcebook: 1st edition 40002 have just been reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games in one 30th Anniversary package and are available here! As per my policy, I have taken down the links to these books and they will remain down while this title is in print.

 

6/25/18 Clone Wars: Season 3 Webcomic is Up and Complete

The Clone Wars: Season 3 webcomic: "The Valsedian Operation" is now complete and up, and available for download as a CBR file (which is a free comic-book reader). Special thanks to Edward Antonowicz for not only spotting the error, but providing the complete version!!

 

6/23/18 Fate of the Jedi: Imprint

The out-of-print Fate of the Jedi short story "Imprint," by Christie Golden, is now available again as a PDF for those of you who've been trying to track it down. You can find it on the right!

 

Clone Wars: Valsedian Operation Incomplete

It's been brought to my attention that the above webstrip is not complete! Sorry about that. The complete version (which is 79 strips) will appear in a few days time! Stay tuned...

 

5/29/18 Greedo's Tale is Back Online!

Greedo-SWIANHFor those of you missing the loss of all the exclusive material from the old online Hyperspace Fan Club, lament a bit less: Star Wars: A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale, written by Tom & Martha Veitch, and adapted into a webstrip by Pablo Hidalgo, is available again right here!

More to come!

 

5/24/18 My "Review" of Solo: A Star Wars Story

Twin Solo’s

Reconciling Solo: A Star Wars Story with The Han Solo Adventures

 

Some Spoilers:

I don’t give everything away, but I do discuss spoilers where necessary to the topic

 

Unlike other reviews which will focus on the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the different directors (Ron Howard replaced Phil Lord & Christopher Miller and purportedly reshot 70% of the film) or the false drama over whether or not Alden Ehrenreich is a good actor (he is), this “review” is different. For one thing, it’s less of a review than it is an analysis of whether or not Solo: A Star Wars Story can work within the context of the original Star Wars Expanded Universe, specifically A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo Trilogy, which covers much of Han Solo’s early life. Thus, this “review” is clearly intended for fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, as the issues discussed won’t matter to movie-only fans, or, for that matter, Disney-canon fans. For that matter, it won’t matter much to EU-purists, many of whom have decided to boycott Disney Star Wars in the wake of Kathleen Kennedy’s decision to axe the 35 year interwoven saga of books, comic-books, animated series, video-games, and short-stories, and deem them non-canon “Legends.” The second question this analysis will ask is whether or not the film is even worth the bother of trying to make it fit.

This is worth addressing first because if the film is terrible, then there’s no point in really going any further. This is also the most subjective area since one person’s passion is another’s poison, but putting that aside and going on my gut as a Star Wars fan since 1977, I think I have a good handle on what works as a Star Wars film and what doesn’t.

For a lot of people, getting over the hump that it’s a different actor playing the iconic Han Solo role is going to be a challenge. For those of us who’ve been immersed in the EU, however, this shouldn’t be too hard. After all, we’ve seen Han (and every major character) interpreted by numerous artists over the years, starting with Howard Chaykin and Carmine Infantino in 1978. Let’s face it, if you can see the character through their interpretation, seeing Han in Alden Ehrenreich shouldn’t be that hard, even if he does sometimes channel more of a young Jack Nicholson than a young Harrison Ford.[1]

So, is the film any good? Actually, it is quite a fun ride; the narrative is based on 1970s heist-films, but done Star Wars-y, and done well. Film is a collaborative art in which all the pieces are necessary for the whole to come together, and Solo definitely comes together. I’ve read a lot of reviews in which critics and fans claim there’s no point to this story. I have to address this head on because that’s frankly one of the most irritating things I’ve ever heard. What movie *needs* to be told, really? Ahh, you’re thinking of some high-art film with a message for the world. I like those too, but to argue that only those kinds of films should be made is pretentiousness, and how exactly are you a Star Wars fan?[2] “Oh, but the stakes aren’t as high as they were in the original trilogy.” They are high enough if you care about the characters, and the characters, not just Han, Chewie and Lando, are likable and interesting. “Oh, but you already know what happens to main cast.” Not in this story you don’t. Yes, you know they live. But is that the sole criteria for whether a work of art has merit? Countless amazing stories exist that don’t hinge on whether a character lives or dies. And that’s true in the adventure story, as well. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey, remember? If you’re a mature filmgoer or reader, then you know that not every story has to be about the end of the world to be good. That’s Hollywood blockbuster nonsense. Besides, if you’re an EU reader, then you already know there’s more to a good story then that because you’ve already read and loved Han Solo at Star’s End, Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, and The Paradise Snare.

Stylistically, Solo comes the closest to feeling like the original Star Wars, and let’s face it, Ron Howard is about as close to George Lucas as we’re going to get in a director. The two know each other from the early ‘70s (when Lucas filmed Howard in the great American Graffiti) and Howard is a huge fan of that original Star Wars film. Thus, Solo has the pacing and sense of wonder and excitement that the original had. I can understand why some are proclaiming this their favorite Star Wars film thus far. I think those views will, by and large, soften as time goes by, but that doesn’t change the fact that this film manages to do something that others tried and failed at. Abrams was so invested in homage and nostalgia (and making sure Disney made its money back) that he made what is essentially a carbon copy of the original, but without any of the charm and breathless novelty of it. Johnson was so invested in deconstruction that he completely abandoned the rules of Star Wars universe in order to mangle and emasculate its characters. Only Gareth Edwards has seemed to understand Star Wars till now, but he had a film that needed to be bleak in order to properly set up A New Hope.

Here, at last, a film feels like Star Wars without egregiously aping it. On the critical side, I’ve heard Solo being called a “safe” film in terms of recycling elements that we already know to exist, but even if not as creatively bold as what Crispin did in the Han Solo Trilogy, or what Daley did in his Han Solo Adventures (and can anyone imagine Disney putting Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thoboka on the big screen, amazing as that would be!), the fact is that we haven’t had an entire film about the underbelly of the galaxy. Lucas had promised us the Underworld television series, which (along with the video game 1313) was supposed to be all about that, but with the sale to Disney (I still swear Lucas was under some serious voodoo magic when he did that), that never materialized, and Solo is the first time we’re seeing the intricacies of that shady world onscreen. And it works well!

So, yeah, Solo is a lot of fun, and narratively interesting, with a window into new people, places and things in the Star Wars galaxy (which is gorgeously shot, incidentally). Thus, it is worth reconciling the film to the EU if it can be. There was a question early on as to whether or not LFL/Disney/Howard might be holding out an olive branch to Star Wars EU fans, a view some believed was true to the preponderance of references in the trailers of this film to various EU deep cuts, such as Mimban, the Cloud Riders, Tag & Bink, etc. While I can’t comment on the filmmakers’ intentions, I can say that most of the EU references (and there are quite a lot of them) are nice nods, but they’re not crucial to the story. Mimban could’ve been any grey world, and I completely missed Tag & Bink’s appearance. So, while the film doesn’t depend on the EU for any of it, the more pressing question is: does it contradict it?

To quote an Obi-Wan cliché, that’s going to depend on your point of view. Or how good you are squinting.[3]

I’m not going to leave you in the dark about this. We’re going to delve right in because in order for this film to fit into the events of A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo Trilogy (which is a must-read if you haven’t read it already), we’re going to need some creative retconning. The following will best be understood by those who’ve read that trilogy. Whether you think this works or not is up to you. I’m not here to persuade you. This is just to show how it can be done for those who want it.

The film doesn’t specify dates, and there’s no novelization as of yet to muck things up in this regard. It begins with a younger Han and his girlfriend Qi’ra on Corellia running a scam for Lady Proxima, who is a seriously awesome looking alien creature.

Now, in the novels, Han works for Gariss Shrike, but this isn’t a problem. In 10 BBY, when Han was 19 he escaped from Garris, met and rescued Bria Tharen from Ylesia, returned to Corellia, and went to Coruscant to get money, where she broke up with him (The Paradise Snare: Chapters 1-15). For the film to fit, Han simply went back to Corellia after these events, possibly to get his old friend Qi’ra out. In the film, he even indicates to her that he’s been free before, implying that he’s not been in servitude this whole time. It appears that in the time Han was away, the Imperial presence, under Lady Proxima’s control, increased, and Han was unable to free Qi’ra until they scammed Lady Proxima at the start of the film. This gives them a way off-world.

Some have commented on Corellia being a lot more industrial then they’d envisioned, but the film only focuses on one small area in one single city on Corellia. Planets are big places. Interestingly, Coronet, the capital city of Corellia, another EU reference, is mentioned.

Han and Qi’ra end up forced to separate, and Han goes to an Imperial recruitment center in order to get enough credits to buy a ship to come back and rescue her. Here, the recruiter asks Han’s surname, and he says he doesn’t have a family, he’s alone. So, the recruiter christens him Solo. This has been a sticking point for a few people, not just EU fans, but it’s not that big a deal. For obvious reasons related to his recent trouble on Corellia, Han doesn’t want to tell Imperials stationed on Corellia who he is, so he finds a way not to. There’s plenty of orphans on this world, him having been one of them. The Imperial recruiter winds up, in one of those rare moments of synchronicity, giving Han the surname he already has! This explains why Han doesn’t discard the surname years later.

Cue to the last two chapters of The Paradise Snare where Han goes to the Academy. In the film, Han ends up three years later in the infantry, instead of the navy where he started out, and he later says that he was kicked out of the Academy. This need not be a problem. Recall the stunt that Mako Spince pulled when he blew up Carida’s moon? Mako was kicked out of the Academy. Han could have been too, but was perhaps reinstated at the insistence of his patron, Bria’s influential father Renn Tharen (who helped Han get in the Academy in the first place). Thus, Han was kicked out, as the film states, and then graduated, as the book shows. But that might not have saved him from being sent into the infantry at some point. Han was clearly trained to fly and he flies like a pro in the film. In fact, he says he was trained in aerial combat, which demonstrates that he was in the navy for a time.

After we see “Three Years Later” onscreen, the film jumps forward in time. You might recall that in the books, Han was an Imperial for five years, not three. No worries. I’ve got that covered. So, three years into his Imperial stint, while on a nameless battle on Mimban, Han meets up with Beckett and his smuggling team posing as Imperials, and decides he’s fed up and wants to join them. His commanding officer catches on to this desertion and sends Han to be eaten by the “beast,” who turns out to be Chewbacca. Chewie is surprised (as is the audience) to hear Han speak Shyriiwook (the language of the Wookiees). This is a clear indication (to me at least) of Han having been raised by the Wookiee Dewlanna (in The Paradise Snare). However, this is clearly their first meeting, and Han doesn’t save the Wookiee. In fact, Chewie saves Han. So, there’s no Life Debt in play here, and it’s not anything like the way Han saves Chewie in the EU. This is actually fine, however, as I’ll discuss later on.

Here, Chewie goes along with Han because it’s expedient to get offworld, and Beckett is his best means of making a lot of money, which Chewie needs to help find his tribe or family who’ve been taken off of Kashyyyk after the Empire enslaved the Wookiees. It’s uncertain exactly who of Chewie’s family or tribe was abducted, but clearly Chewie’s motivation at this time is finding captured Wookiees (which is in keeping with the EU, as shown in the Chewbacca miniseries).

Beckett’s plan involves a train heist on Vandor (from 2003’s Coruscant and the Core Worlds sourcebook), which does not go well, and they lose the powerful fuel they’re trying to steal due to the interference of the Cloud Riders, led by Enfys Nest. Fans of the old Marvel Star Wars series will recall this is the gang that Han fought against on Aduba-3 in issue #9, only now being run by a very different leader. There must have been a splinter-group, or faction that broke off between the time of these two stories, as the motivation of Enfys Nest is very different than that of Gallandro.

Han and Chewie here discover that Beckett’s working for a powerful crime lord named Dryden Vos (no relation to the Quinlan that we know), who is himself working for a crime syndicate called Crimson Dawn. They go to see him, and Han encounters Qi’ra, who’s now a bigshot working for Vos. Beckett promises Vos that he’ll get him the fuel he lost, but where? Han suggests Kessel, where it can be found in its unprocessed state. But the volatile fuel will need to quickly be processed or it will go Boom! Thankfully, the planet Savareen is not that far (another really deep cut, as Savareen was only ever mentioned, to my knowledge, in the Star Wars Adventure Journal #9 story “Easy Credits”). They’ll need a fast ship, and Qi’ra knows someone. Vos agrees, and sends Qi’ra along with them.

They travel to some unknown world where Lando Calrissian is playing sabacc with a bunch of weird-looking aliens, while gladiator droids are battling each other (first depicted in Han Solo at Star’s End). Han joins the game, but Lando uses a skifter and cheats in order to keep his ship, the Millennium Falcon. Technically, Lando shouldn’t have the Falcon for another two years yet, as indicated in the book Millennium Falcon. I’ve estimated that we’re in the year 7 BBY and Han is 22 years old. But there’s no reason Lando couldn’t have gotten it two years earlier than what’s stated in the novel. It means fudging the dating a bit, but that’s hardly irreconcilable.

Qi’ra then offers Lando the job, and together they head off to Kessel. There’s a strange conversation on the Falcon where Han tells Lando that his father built YT-1300s. How does Han know his father if he didn’t know his family or last name earlier? In neither the film nor the books does Han know who his father is. So, is he lying to Lando? Very likely. Lando treats him like a child early on in the film, and is clearly more sophisticated and educated than Han. Ashamed of his lowly origins as an orphan, Han might very well have made up a story about his father being a shipbuilder to make himself look better. This is exactly the kind of thing Han used to tell his marks when he worked for Shrike years earlier. So, it’s in character for him.

But wait a minute? Doesn’t Han first meet Lando in The Hutt Gambit (the 2nd book of The Han Solo Trilogy) when Lando rescues him from Boba Fett? Yes. And in that story Han even says he’s never seen or heard of any Lando Calrissian before! This can’t be fixed, can it? Well, actually, it can, and pretty easily too. Reread chapters 5 and 6. When Boba Fett captures Han, he drugs him with a rare paralytic drug from Ryloth. Though not stated in the book, the drug may have also temporarily affected parts of Han’s memory. Note how Lando grins every time Han says he doesn’t know him, and how suspicious he gets when Han shows interest in the Falcon. Lando had sought him out because he knows Han to be a great pilot and he wants someone to teach him.

While Lando is seen flying in Solo, it’s actually his droid L3-37 who does all of the heavy lifting, and when they get to Kessel, Lando withdraws, leaving her to take over completely. So, it seems clear that while he can fly, he can’t fly like a trained pilot.

Lando and Beckett also have an interesting conversation, where Lando asks if he killed bounty hunter Aurra Sing, and Beckett says he pushed her. He doesn’t say he saw her body, so we can assume that, as per the EU, Sing is alive and well!

While on Kessel, L3 starts a droid revolt at the same time that Chewie leaves Han to free some fellow Wookiees, one of whom turns out to be his friend Sagwa. They flee aboard the Falcon, where Han has to navigate the Maw. The Maw, a cluster of black holes, was first depicted in the Kevin Anderson’s Jedi Academy trilogy, and although we only see one black hole here, there’s no reason to assume the other two aren’t lurking nearby. One thing that is clearly lurking nearby is a giant Lovecraftian creature who attacks the Falcon! With some help, Han manages to make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, though this is in question by Chewie.

So, why doesn’t Han tell Roa that he’d already made the Kessel Run two years earlier when the older smuggler takes him out there in The Hutt Gambit? Maybe he has that conversation, and it’s offscreen (so to speak). Or maybe Han likes to keep things close to the vest. It’s possible he just doesn’t want to reveal his association with Beckett or the circumstances involved.

One major difference here between the film and EU is the planet Kessel itself, which looks like a “normal” planet and not a giant asteroid as it’s been depicted in the EU, but then again maybe the quick shot is not of Kessel, but of Kessel’s garrison moon, or maybe even Little Kessel (from the newspaper strip “The Second Kessel Run”). Either works. The Pyke Syndicate is in control of Kessel at this time. No doubt after the embarrassing droid revolt, they won’t be for long.

The film climaxes on Savareen, the events of which I won’t go into, as it doesn’t involve our discussion at hand, and you should have some surprises if you intend on seeing the film. One nice EU nod I will mention is a certain character’s knowledge of Teras Kasi (first mentioned in Shadows of the Empire).

At the end, there is what appears to be a time gap, in which Han shows up on a planet where Lando is playing Sabacc, and there wins the Falcon after stealing Lando’s skifter. This is probably the biggest contradiction in the film, as the planet does not appear to be Bespin, which is where Han wins the Falcon in the first two chapters of Rebel Dawn; it doesn’t look like Cloud City, there are no large crowds, and it doesn’t seem to be a fancy tournament. Here’s really where you’ll need to squint, and argue to yourself that they just didn’t shown Cloud City, but that they’re there, and it has private rooms that are designed to look like illegal gambling dens, and that’s where this specific game took place.

As regards the time gap in question, it has to be a 3½ year gap.

If you say so, Joe! But what then does Han do in that gap before he wins the Falcon? Remember when I said that Han was an Imperial for five years, not three. Here’s where that comes in: Han returns to Imperial service. He goes back with the false story of having tracked down Beckett, a false Imperial agent, and wiping out his team. The story turns out to be true (more or less) and Han is promoted to the Navy. Maybe Han wants respectability. Maybe he just wants credits to get his own ship. Or maybe he wants to stick it to them in some other way. Chewie, meanwhile, goes back to his original plan of freeing captured Wookiees.

Two years later, Chewie’s caught by Commander Nyklas, as shown in the comic-book miniseries Chewbacca. Nyklas orders Han to torture him. Instead, Han saves the unconscious Wookiee, and when Chewie comes to and recognizes Han (offscreen), he pledges a Life Debt to him. Han is kicked out of the Empire. The rest of the events of The Hutt Gambit play out, until the beginning of Rebel Dawn, in which Solo and the first chapter of that book are intermingled with Han winning the Falcon. At the end of Solo, Han talks about going to Tatooine. But this can be a distant plan. After all, in this EU-friendly version, he already knows and works for Jabba. Beckett never mentioned Jabba, though, and just said a team was being assembled there. Whether realizes this or not, he nevertheless returns to his home on Nar Shaddaa, improves the Falcon, and continues the adventures of Rebel Dawn and the Brian Daley trilogy.

Ta-da!

Sure, it’s not perfect and perhaps there’s even a better way of retrofitting the events, but it works. If there are future sequels to this film, it seems highly unlikely they’ll be able to be jammed into continuity the way this one can be. The more important beats of Solo are the characterizations, and if nothing else, Han at least acts like Han from the books. He’s not green and has clearly been around and had adventures.

Yet, for many, these are bridges too far to cross, and I respect that, as well as the Disney boycott stance. For me, I view the Disney-verse as many did the Dark Horse Tales comic-book anthology series, as Infinities stories that could be brought into canon. And some stories required more finessing than others. This is one of them.

If George Lucas had not sold Star Wars and decided to make his own Solo film (hopefully he’d have called it something pulpier like Han Solo and the Kessel Run), no doubt we’d have had contradictions and things to work around as well. True, it’s not Lucas, it’s Howard. And it’s not Harrison Ford, it’s Alden Ehrenreich. And it’s not designed to be set in the original universe, but a secondary one. But these “twin solos” are what we’ve got, and as a story and as a film, Solo is quite good and probably worth the effort to take out of Infinities and put into canon. Of course, that’s the decision of each individual fan. We don’t have a governing body to dictate what is and isn’t canonical, and that’s OK. Star Wars belongs to all fans, and we each enjoy it somewhat differently. Hopefully, one day Lucasfilm will continue the Expanded Universe in books and comics, under their so-called “Legends” line. Until then, like Han Solo himself, we’re free to borrow, scrounge, and take the stories we want for ourselves.  

Addendum: Here is a graph which plots out the timing of the film and books.

 

Han Solo Movie and EU Timeline

 

Paradise SnareImage result for han solo paradise snare

Chap 2 (flashback)

Han learns his last name is Solo

18 BBY

Han is 11 years old

Paradise Snare

Image result for han solo paradise snare

Chaps 1-15 (end of section)

Han escapes from Garris Shrike, gets a job as a pilot for Toerenza on Ylesia, meets and rescues Bria, returns with her to Corellia. Bria leaves him on Coruscant.

10 BBY

Han is 19 years old

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Related image

Han returns to Corellia, hooks up with his old friend Qi’ra, works for Lady Proxima. He and Qi’ra escape, but are separated. Han goes to join the Empire. He doesn’t offer his last name. They coincidentally name him Solo.

 

10 BBY

Paradise Snare

Image result for han solo paradise snare

Chap 15 (start of 2nd section)

Han goes to the Academy, Shrike tries to kill him, but ends up killed instead. Han ships out to Carida for training.

10-8 BBY

Paradise Snare

Image result for han solo paradise snare

Epilogue

Speculation

Mako Spince blows up the Carida mascot moon.

 

Han is kicked out of the Academy with Mako, but is then reinstated (due to Renn Tharen’s assistance) and graduates.

8 BBY

Millennium Falcon

Related image

Lando wins the Millennium Falcon

 

Contradiction: In the book, Lando wins it in 5 BBY, two years later. This means the dating of the flashbacks in chapters 15 and 20 will have to be altered.

7 BBY

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Related image

3 years after he joins the Empire, while fighting in the infantry on Mimban, Han meets Chewbacca and joins Beckett’s gang. He meets Qi’ra again, who now works for Crimson Dawn. Han meets Lando and goes on a heist aboard the Millennium Falcon to obtain fuel found on Kessel. On the way back, the Falcon gets a droid brain and Han barely escapes the Maw, making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, but damaging it. Lando departs angrily.

Contradictions: Han leaves the Empire, encounters Chewie, Lando, the Falcon and goes on the Kessel Run too early.

Retcon: Han returns to the Empire, rescues Chewie, meets Lando again, but doesn’t remember him after being drugged by Fett, and conceals having gone on the Kessel Run because of his association with Beckett.

7 BBY

Han is 22 years old

Chewbacca

Image result for chewbacca miniseries trade paperback

(Chapter 3)

Speculation

Chewie leaves to continue helping to free Wookiees. He has pledged no Life Debt for Han at this point since it was he who rescued Han initially, and they help each other while working for Beckett.

 

Han returns to the Empire, likely claiming he'd hunted down the Imperial impersonator Beckett and his team. He now joins the Navy.

7 BBY

The Hutt Gambit

Image result for hutt gambit

Chaps 1-2

Chewbacca Image result for chewbacca miniseries trade paperback

Chapter 5

Han ends up rescuing an unconscious Chewie whose been caught by Commander Nyklas, who orders Han to torture and kill him. Han refuses, for which he is drummed out of the Empire after five years of service.

 

Chewie now pledges him a Life-Debt.

5 BBY

Han is 24 years old

The Hutt Gambit

Image result for hutt gambit

Chaps 3-6

Han goes to Nar Shadda, reconnects with Mako Spince, flies the Kessel Run, goes to work for Jilliac and Jabba, meets and dates Xaverri.

 

Han is drugged and captured by Fett (hired by Toerenza), but saved by Lando. Fett’s drug (from Ryloth) must have had the effect of temporarily affecting Han’s memory (Lando obviously knows Han, which may be why he grins and then acts suspicious when Han eyes the Falcon). Lando hires Han to teach him how to fly on the Falcon (like Han does).

5 BBY

Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu

Image result for lando calrissian and the mindharp of sharu

The Hutt Gambit

Image result for hutt gambit

Chap 7

Lando heads out with the Falcon on adventures, including his first in the Rafa system in the Centrality, where he meets the unusual droid Vuffi Ra.

 

Returning to Nar Shaddaa, Lando buys a spaceship lot.

 

After a six month tour, Xaverri breaks up with Han, and he and Chewie return to Nar Shadda, where they meet up with Lando whose just returned with Vuffi Ra from his adventure with the Sharu in Rafa.

4 BBY

Han is 25 years old

The Hutt Gambit

Image result for hutt gambit

Chap 7-16

Han returns to work for Jabba, rents a ship from Lando, meets Shug Ninx, Rik Duel, and dates Salla Zend. Organizes and fights the Battle of Nar Shadda with Xaverri and his friends’ help.

4 BBY

 

Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon

Image result for lando calrissian and the flamewind of oseon

 

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka

Image result for lando calrissian and the starcave of thonboka

Lando returns to the Centrality. Vuffi Ra leaves to join his people. Lando plans to go to Cloud City in six months for a big gambling tournament. He tells Han about it.

3 BBY

Han is 26 years old

Rebel Dawn

Image result for rebel dawn

Chaps 1-2

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Related image

Han goes to Cloud City and on the 4th day wins the Falcon in a high-stakes Sabacc tournament

 

Contradiction: Solo covers the same event, but appears to set it on a different planet. The tournament seems squalid, not high-end.

 

Retcon: It *could* be Cloud City, but not shown or identified as such. There may be a room designed to look like a squalid gambling den. Requires a 3.5 year leap in time from the previous scene in the film.

3 BBY


 

[1] True, I would have cast Anthony Ingruber, who even played a younger version of Harrison Ford’s character  in the film Age of Adeline, and is a great actor who happens to look and sound so close to Harrison Ford, you’d swear they cloned him. But they didn’t, and Alden is frankly just fine in what’s ultimately a thankless role for the young actor.

[2] Though, in truth, Star Wars has some very vivid messages for audiences. See my essays in A Long Time Ago, A More Civilized Age, and A Galaxy Far, Far Away, all published by Sequart Press.

[3] My friend Rob Mullin predicted as much, and he’s generally right about a great many things.

 

5/23/18 Gearing Up to Go Solo...

Fixed a bunch of timeline mistakes I'd made with A.C. Crispin's The Han Solo Trilogy and its surrounding stories. Having now re-read it, I have a much better idea of its events going into Solo: A Star Wars Story. I've created a chart to help with reconciling the two, but the retcons aren't going to be pretty based on what spoilers I've learned. What that means is that for those who want to toss out the film (and I understand), you'll have ample justification to do so, while those who want to put the film in continuity (and I understand), there will be some workarounds that I'll bring to the fore to help in this regard. In either case, I'll be going to the first showing of the film at 6 PM tomorrow, you'll have my full review come tomorrow evening by around 10:30 PM.

 

5/13/18 Minor Additions and More

Just added the appropriate episodes of Season Two of Forces of Destiny (the EU-friendly episodes), some of which have even included EU characters, like Princess Kneesa from the old Ewoks animated series! (For some reason, neither the Ewoks or Droids animated series still have an official DVD/blu-ray release.)

 

Also, I may have some good news for us long-time EU fans! Can't spoil anything yet, but as soon as I can confirm it, I'll let you know. Stay tuned!

 

5/9/18 Hungarian Han Solo Books...

As some of you know, I've been looking for a translator for the four Han Solo books published exclusive in Hungary, and licensed by Lucasfilm, but never translated into English. I have a potential fan whose learning Hungarian and serious about translating these books. But that's a long journey and he could use help, so if there any heroes out there who speak Hungarian and English and are willing to pitch in as translator, contact me! I've posted digital PDFs of the four books here in the Archives (you'll see it on the right hand side border).

 

In case all of this is news to you, here's the quick rundown: In 1992/1993, four original Han Solo books were released as official continuations of the Brian Daley trilogy, published by the relatively new publishing house Valhalla Páholy taking advantage of a legal loophole in Hungarian copyright law. Lucasfilm later incorporated them into the fold, but never got around to providing translations. The books were well-researched and written, and have a great reputation in Hungary, where fans have said they're as good as the Brian Daley Han Solo trilogy.

 

HAN SOLO NOMÀDJAI, or Han Solo at Doomsday's Edge, by Ed Fisher (actually Gáspár András)

HAN SOLO a BIRODALMI ÜGYMÖK, or Han Solo’s Gambit, by Dale Avery (actually Nyulaszi Zsolt)

HAN SOLO és a FEJVADÀSZOK, or Han Solo and the Bounty Hunters, by Dale Avery (Nyulaszi Zsolt)

HAN SOLO HÁBORÚJA, or The War of Han Solo, by Dale Avery (Nyulaszi Zsolt)

 

Missing the Clone Wars Webcomics?

Miss them no more! You'll find links to CBR files (these files can be read by downloading a free CBR reader here) of Seasons 1-3 in the Archives (on the right)!

 

4/28/18 Polishing...

Thanks to Vaughn Everlast for pointing out some missing items, oddly-listed items and other miscellanea. I added some more omnibus collections too and polished up the look of the Archive section for out-of-print and unpublished Star Wars stories. More work needs to be done on that and other areas.

 

Also, thanks to Alex Payne for more missing material!

 

4/10/18 More Things to Come...

Thanks again to Vaughn Everlast, who managed to track down and share with me a number of now out-of-print RPG items, which are becoming obscure. I'll be able to share these with everyone at some point, but I have to warn you that it isn't going to be any time soon. I'm wrapped up in other projects for the foreseeable future, and I still have "Supernatural Encounters" to deliver on Halloween, but I will get them out to you when my schedule clears. Just wanted to let you know in advance that some of the things in the RPG world that you might have thought lost are not necessarily!

 

Also, as the forthcoming Solo film features Cloud Riders (from 1978's Marvel Star Wars #8), swoop bikes (from the latter, as well as Shadows of the Empire), the planet Mimban (from 1978's Splinter of the Mind's Eye), Malla (Chewie's wife from 1978's The Star Wars Holiday Special and The Wookiee Storybook), the planet Vandor (from the Jedi Apprentice series), and Tag & Bink, from their own Dark Horse series, all elements from the Expanded Universe, most from the earliest days of it, several of you have asked me to check out the film and see if it can fit in any way, shape or form into the original EU storyline. While I have my doubts, the fact that Rogue One and Rebels fits just fine, convinced me that it's possible to have a post-Disney project that fits both their storyline and the original canon. You can expect my thoughts on it after the film's debut.

 

3/31/18 More West End Games

A thanks and shoutout to Vaughn Everlast, who sent me digital PDFs of the missing two West End Games supplements, Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races and Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters, both first edition D6 rules. Also, thanks to Vaughn for pointing out a few things that were absent from the timeline!

 

3/16/18 End of Games

The final of the four "lost" webstrips, Evasive Action: End Game is now available here! Enjoy!

 

3/15/18 According to information I just received from his widow, the late Charles Grant never got around to writing the Shadows of the Empire prequel story. Unless further information is forthcoming, we can safely cross that off the "Lostworlds" list.

 

I've also finally added the final Legacy Volume 2 comic-book series, which I'd never read and, thus, failed to place. Thanks to Alex Payne for sending me a reminder!

 

3/7/18 Ewoks Placement

I've moved the Ewoks animated series, comic-book series and two films to 3 ABY. I've long resisted doing this, as it seemed clear that there was no Death Star above the moon, however, as absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, I no longer see that as a good defense for keeping it in the BBY period, particularly since Raygar (from Season 1: Episode 12: "Battle for the Sunstar") makes his first appearance in "Death in the Slave Pits of Lorrd," which takes place after the Galaxy of Fear series, and the fact that the Wokling seen in Return of the Jedi is Nippet, the same wokling seen throughout the Ewoks animated series. Special thanks to Noam Jessen for bringing this to my attention!

 

PREY for Star Wars webstrips!

Evasive Action: Prey is now up! I've also linked the strips on the Complete Saga timeline to the specific webstrips that are delineated in that section, e.g., Reversal of Fortune is broken up into several segments that occur from before Revenge of the Sith to after.

 

2/6/18 Evasive Action: Recruitment

The 2nd of the four "lost" Hyperspace webstrips is now up! Enjoy!

 

1/24/18 Rebel Alliance Sourcebook D6

Just wanted to say Thank You to Michael Ruger for sharing The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook (D6 version) with us!  You can find it on my West End Games page, or right here!

 

1/15/18 Happy New Year!

For those of you who've sent or said nice things about Cult Encounters, thank you!  Thank you too to the guys over at http://boards.theforce.net/threads/cult-encounters-new-legends-material.50047631/! You guys rock!  A lot of you have asked when Supernatural Encounters is coming out. The release date is Halloween of this year! 

 

Finally, I also wanted to say thank you to Brock Hanley for pointing out a broken link, which is now fixed!

 

Back to the Latest News

Note: Unpublished. rare. or out-of-print Star Wars stories will be taken down if/when officially released/reprinted

Supernatural Encounters

 

 

Cult Encounters

 

Previously unpublished duology intended for Hyperspace and the Star Wars Blog.

Lightsider

Tom Veitch's unpublished bridge story between Dark Empire I and II

Much More over at

THE ARCHIVES