- Star Wars: famous sci-fi movie series.
- Expanded Universe: all the books and videogames and comics based on Star Wars settings and characters.
- Canon: a term used by fans of long-running franchises to refer to which parts are considered "real" parts of the story, and which parts are not. For instance, Doctor Who fans can consider the 1996 movie to be an actual part of the Doctor's history, while this spoof starring Rowan Atkinson is not.
Whether or not something is canon might be decided by consensus of the fans, or it might be determined by the creator.
I first came across the canon concept in university from friends who were into comic books. Canon is complicated for comics, because there may be movie versions with contradictory plot points, but also because there are so many special editions and crossovers. And it gets worse because the comic publishers insist that all their comics take place in the same universe.
I have to admit that I never really got the need for stories set in the same universe. Comic fans seemed to feel a need for overall consistency. If someone did a series where the X-Men play against the Harlem Globetrotters, it's not enough to just think of it as one of many stories; there seems to be a need for it to all fit together.
But I think I understand it now. Even though I never read any of the expanded universe, it still kind of ticked me off. It may be silly to make distinctions of what did and didn't happen in a fictional story, but a lot of people invested a lot of emotions in it, and they've ignored that for no reason beyond the fact that the hot shot director doesn't want his hands tied.
Maybe it's about time to abandon the canon idea. With more and more reboots and sequels and re-imagining, not to mention fan fiction, it's getting harder to decide what is fact within the fiction.
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