There are two versions of what happened after Return of the Jedi

Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, bringing the original Star Wars trilogy to an end. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader killed Emperor Palpatine, Princess Leia and Han Solo made moon eyes at each other, and all was right with the galaxy.

It was 16 years before Star Wars returned for the prequel trilogy, and after that was over, another decade passed before the sequel trilogy kicked off with The Force Awakens. In between, fans were kept entertained with the Star Wars Legends chronology, a series of dozens of books and comics that explained what happened before, between, and after these movies.

Star Wars Legends was scrapped

The sequel trilogy replaced it

The Star Wars Legends books gave fans a complete account of what happened to Luke, Leia, Han, and the rest after the events of Return of the Jedi, following their exploits over the decades. However, after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, the House of Mouse officially declared the Star Wars Legends books illegitimate. From then on, only the original six movies and the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars were considered “canon.”

From there, Disney made up its own version of events in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. If you watched The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, you know what happened. Luke tries to build a new Jedi Order, but things go sideways when Ben Solo, son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, gives in to the dark side, slaughtering several students and destroying Luke’s new Jedi temple. He takes on the name of Kylo Ren and joins the First Order, a new imperial movement that had risen from the ashes of the defeated Empire.

Luke goes into self-imposed exile and Kylo Ren kills his own father before dying himself in The Rise of Skywalker. Leia also dies, exhausted by using the Force to call out to her son over a great distance. The First Order is defeated, and characters like Rey and Finn pick up the torch and carry it forward.

Things happen differently in Star Wars Legends

Although there are more similarities than you might expect

Credit: Random House Worlds

The Legends books explain what happened after the events of Return of the Jedi in far more detail, although some common threads reoccur. For instance, Han and Leia have three children in the Legends continuity, not one. However, one of them — Jacen Solo — does train with Luke to hone his talent in the Force and eventually comes under the sway of a Sith agent, much the way that Ben Solo comes under the sway of the enigmatic Supreme Leader Snoke. Then, Jacen Solo adopts the name Darth Caedus and uses murder and political manipulation to establish a dictatorial regime.

To be sure, there are differences in these stories; for example, Jacen never kills his father like Ben Solo does. But the Star Wars sequel trilogy borrowed the overall arc of Han and Leia’s son turning to the dark side from the Legends continuity.

Although the Legends books are now de-canonized, several elements have still made their way into Disney’s Star Wars universe. One of the main villains in the Legends continuity is Grand Admiral Thrawn, a former Imperial officer who launches a campaign to take over the galaxy. Thrawn appears in the Star Wars show Ahsoka, where he’s played by Lars Mikkelsen. The Nightsisters, a matriarchal clan of dark side Force-wielders, also show up in Ahsoka. In some ways, the Disney Star Wars movies didn’t abandon the Legends series so much as remix it.

Important characters who live in Legends die in Disney’s version

And vice versa

Although, to be fair, in other ways the Disney continuity is nothing like Star Wars Legends. For example, the Disney movies completely get rid of Mara Jade, a former Imperial agent who eventually reformed and married Luke Skywalker. In Legends, the two have a son together: Ben Skywalker.

Or take what happens to Chewbacca, Han Solo’s loyal Wookie companion. In the Legends continuity, he dies in the 1999 novel The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore, which recounts a battle with a fearsome alien race called the Yuuzhan Vong. Chewie sacrifices himself to save Anakin Solo, one of Han and Leia’s children.

The opposite happens with Luke, Leia, and Han, all of whom die during Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy. But they’re all alive by the end of the 2013 novel Crucible by Troy Denning, one of the final books published in the Legends continuity.

Whither Star Wars?

The Star Wars franchise is currently at a crossroads. The sequel trilogy made a lot of money, but reactions among fans were divided, sometimes bitterly. Disney has kept the franchise active since then with a series of TV shows, which have been hit-and-miss affairs. After the mixed reception to the sequel movies, Disney seems hesitant to mount a major new movie series that carries the story forward.

But they’re finally ready to dip their toes back in. Star Wars: Starfighter will be set five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and follow a rogue pilot played by Ryan Gosling. It also stars Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, and Aaron Pierre.

The cast is impressive, but is the world ready to fall in love with a big new Star Wars movie again? We’ll find out when Star Wars: Starfighter opens in theaters on May 28, 2027.