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The Star Wars "expanded universe" is packed with bold adventures and epic stories, and contains more than a few video game outings — such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which is perhaps the most recent example of Lucasarts neatly adding to the already impressive lore of the famous Sci-Fi series.

However, parent company Lucasfilm has now issued a statement which renders all of these games — plus novels, comics and other media — non-canon.

[George] Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU [Expanded Universe]. 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.

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.

While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe.

Speaking of the new movie, much of the final cast has now been revealed, with returning stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker rubbing shoulders with newcomers such as Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), Adam Driver (Girls) and John Boyega (Attack the Block). That's them in the photo below.

J.J. Abrams with the cast of the forthcoming sequel (and R2-D2 in a crate)

What do you think about this move? Has the Star Wars expanded universe become so unmanageable that this was the only route Lucasfilm could realistically take to ensure the new films made sense? Or do you think that the company has been too hasty to separate some of the amazing original stories from the main body of the series? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Thanks to Ryan Millar for the tip.

[source eurogamer.net, via starwars.com]