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Then Lucas decided to make more films, and the first of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released in 1999. It launched a new era for the expanded universe, one in which most of the stories coincided with each other. The book was marketed as the first real sequel to the original films. Later, the expanded universe grew with the important addition of Heir to the Empire, a book by Timothy Zahn. Much of those stories were never meant to be that cohesive with the films anyway, but it was a start. The success came partially from massive merchandise sales that included comics and books. The film was hugely popular, spawned two sequels, and eventually gave rise to an enormous franchise. Though it was just titled Star Wars at the time, it has since been retitled as Star Wars: A New Hope.
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Star Wars started in 1977 when George Lucas released the first film in the saga. So if you want to know what is Star Wars canon, don’t forget to check out the first timeline. The first timeline only includes links to material that is officially approved by the Lucasfilm Story Group as official canon in the new continuity. If there is something that is not included in the list that you think contributes to the overall timeline, let us know and we will make the change. These include Role-Playing-Game scenarios and books for child readers. There are a few pieces of Star Wars media that are not included either because of lack of availability or because of a lack of relevance to the canon. There may be a few exceptions which will be pointed out in individual reviews. Additionally, the placement within the timeline is often based on where the work ends rather than where it begins. In the event that two works cover the exact same timeframe the one published first is read first. This list does not attempt to split up any novels so that they are read congruently, but rather focuses on an easy to follow reading list. This includes primarily all movies and television programs, novels, YA books, short stories, comic books, and video games of a canonical nature. These lists attempt to create a reading order (or in some cases viewing/playing order) for all major pieces of the Star Wars universe.