Episode VII will begin a new canon, and the post-Jedi EU isn’t part of it
This was a foregone conclusion the moment Disney/Lucasfilm announced new Star Wars sequels, but one imagines some fans will still be angry anyway. Today, with a post to StarWars.com, the powers that be put the hammer down: Episode’s VII and beyond will not conform to the Expanded Universe’s version of what came next for Luke, Han, Leia, etc; and The EU is no more.
The Expanded Universe is the general term given to stories set in the Star Wars Universe outside of the films, beginning with spin-off novels in the late 70s and continuing up through role-playing games, comics and videogames for several decades. For a time they were widely considered to form an “official/unofficial” canon with the films, and George Lucas even had to officially make certain characters and periods off-limits in order to not muddy the waters during the making of the Prequels.
While novels, comics, animated series, TV shows, games etc will continue to be set before, during, after and parallel-to current and future Star Wars films; they will now do so in the context of an official unified canon maintained by an official Lucasfilm Story Group, which will also decide which characters and concepts from the former EU can be repurposed by future filmmakers and authors; while the original Expanded Universe books themselves will continue to be published under the new banner “Star Wars: Legends.”
Source: StarWars.com
