For many years, there have essentially existed two versions of ‘Star Wars’ canon. There is the world the unfolded on the big screen thanks to the two trilogies, and then there are the books, comics, and video games that became known as the “Expanded Universe”. While things like Brian Wood’s ongoing comic series ‘Star Wars’ from Dark Horse built off of events from the original three films, animated series ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ filled in the blanks between the prequels, and the Thrawn Trilogy introduced us to the likes of Mara Jade and Talon Karrde, fans were never quite sure what was officially included in this mythology created by George Lucas. Well, now it appears that the new owners of the franchise are taking steps to clearly define what’s included in the canon and what isn’t.

Bleeding Cool has directed the world to Leland Chee, a Lucasfilm worker who has recently been appointed to the Lucasfilm Story Group. The purpose of this group is to bring the movies and the Expanded Universe together into one cohesive storyline. Chee informed the world of his new position through his Twitter feed and described the group’s mission:

“Star Wars Canon is now determined by the Lucasfilm Story Group which [Pablo Hidalgo] and I are both a part of.

Story Group has a hand in all facets of Star Wars storytelling, including movies, TV, games, and publishing. More so than ever, the canon field will serve us internally simply for classification rather than setting hierarchy.

[Disposing of the hierarchy and having one cohesive canon is] definitely a primary goal of the Story Group.”

Now that the company is striving to condense the ‘Star Wars’ mythology, many are curious about what will stay and what will go. Chances are that they won’t scrap the whole of the EU, but instead they’ll pick and choose what pieces fit in the best. If that wasn’t the case, then why even go through all the trouble of forming a committee to decide what stays and what goes?

Also, since there’s no discussed timeline for when this new ‘Star Wars’ universe unification will be completed, we have to wonder how it will affect J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’. Depending on how far into the future his trilogy is set, then that will probably determine what elements of Han, Luke, and Leia’s timelines established after the movies will stay intact.

What do you think of Lucasfilm bringing together the various ‘Star Wars’ properties together into one canon? What are some things that you hope will remain intact after the Story Group establishes the mythology of the series? Do you think that they’ll keep ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ in the canon? Sound off in the comments below.