Where No Star Wars Tales Has Gone Before

While the era portrayed in the current Dark Horse incarnation of KOTOR has been explored before, the era of "Star Wars: Legacy" has never been written about in any other medium. "Legacy" author and comic book legend John Ostrander told TwitchGuru that Dark Horse approached him and artist Jan Duursema, and asked them what they wanted to do with a new Star Wars comics series. Ostrander replied that he wanted to go forward.

And go forward they have. "Legacy" takes place more than a century after the events of the Star Wars films. In this time frame, the Star Wars universe is once again confronted by the Sith, who challenge both the Jedi and the "rightful" Galactic Emperor, who is protected by Imperial Jedi Knights. There are non-Imperial Jedi who seem to be disliked by both the Sith and the Galactic Emperor, and one Jedi in particular who may hold the key to making everything right: Cade Skywalker. Though Cade starts the series off as a pirate, having totally distanced himself from the Jedi and from his famous ancestry, the series focuses on this latest Skywalker and his maturation and redemption.

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Ostrander's reasons for going forward are relatively simple: he wanted to know what would happen next. "I also felt that, by going into the future, we wouldn't be stumbling over other Star Wars projects - that would give us a greater degree of freedom and flexibility," Ostrander said. "And it would give us the chance to restore that same feeling when the first movie came out - of being thrust into a universe and having that sense of discovery.

"It would also make us unique, in that if you wanted to learn about this era, the only place you could go was the comic," Ostrander continued. "There were no novels or games or cartoons or handbooks. All you had was the comic, and all you would need, at this point, was the comic."

Ostrander and Miller have both created new characters and storylines for the Star Wars expanded universe, but are they considered Star Wars canon? With "Legacy" occurring so far out of the spectrum of what is known about the Star Wars expanded universe, one might suspect that the story isn't part of the official Star Wars timeline. But that's not the case at all; both KOTOR and Legacy are bona fide Star Wars canon entries. "We've made 'Legacy' fit in with canon and continuity, but if you were a reader who knew nothing about the Expanded Universe, you could still get into it," Ostrander said. "At every step, we submit what we're doing to Lucasfilm Licensing (LFL) for approval and comment, and that goes back to the very beginning of our work on 'Legacy'. Nothing happens without the approval of LFL, and they have said 'Legacy' is canon - so I guess it is."

Miller explained that in his book, Lucasfilm reviews every aspect of the work at several stages, from the plot to the script to the art. "Between their team and the editors at Dark Horse, everybody works to keep everything consistent with what's gone before," Miller said. "And, yes, everything that happens in the series is part of the official continuity."