The Star Wars universe is massive…and detailed. At this point, if you only know what happened in the movies, you’re not even getting half the picture. There are video games, tabletop games, novels, more novels, and a cartoon show that were all cannon before Disney took over. It spans thousands of years in either direction, and what we see in the movies is a small snapshot of the vast universe in which Star Wars takes place. There are stories, characters, and wars that haven’t even made it close to the silver screen. Here are 25 things that happened outside of the Star Wars Movies.
The Kessel Run was a smuggling route used to move spice from the spice mines of the prison planet Kessel. The route skirted The Maw and needed several hyperspace jumps to complete with frequent extreme changes in velocity and direction. The record shortest distance the run was completed in, under 12 parsecs, was won by Han Solo using the Millennium Falcon. While this is referenced in the movies, it's never explained since it happened outside of the movies.
Source : http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel_Run Palpatine/Darth Sidious had clones made of himself, so in the event of his death he could use the Dark Side of the Force to hop between them, ensuring immortality. Most were destroyed by traitorous elements within his own order.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/ Han Solo killed the last clone body of Emperor Palpatine by shooting it in the back during the Battle of Onderon.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Onderon_(Galactic_Civil_War) Han and Leia's first children (left out of the movies, at least so far), were identical twins named Jaina and Jacen. Kidnapping attempts against them were made so frequently in the novels there's a running gag about "The Solo twins getting kidnapped again" among the people who are fans of the novels. (Star Wars novels, btw, aren't part of Disney cannon.)
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jaina_Solo_Fel The Darksaber was built for a Hutt crime lord and was literally a reconstruction of the Death Star super-weapon laser with a shell of a ship built around it. It was crushed between two asteroids while attempting to flee the second of two New Republic (the Alliance after Episode VI) strike teams sent to destroy it. Also, it was black and really cool looking.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darksaber_(novel) Chewbacca had a wife, Mallatobuck, and a son Lumpawarrump, who later became known as Lumpawaroo (or simply Waroo) after passing his hrrtayyk or Wookie coming of age ceremony. The two of them are seen briefly in the Star Wars Holiday Special, but that is not canon anywhere, and, Waroo has many adventures outlined in the Expanded Universe.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lumpawaroo Before the New Jedi Order could be created as a continuation of the older (destroyed by Palpatine via Order 66), Luke had to train the Dark Side of the Force under one of the clones of Palpatine. Something something balance something.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/ The Sun Crusher was a starfighter sized craft that was literally invincible, and made the Death Star look like a wimpy pea-shooter. Instead of destroying planets, it deleted entire star systems by making the star go supernova. It took a hit from a Death Star superlaser without a scratch. It was destroyed when it fell into one of the blacks holes of The Maw.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sun_Crusher Darth Maul was resurrected in season 4 of Clone Wars. Palpatine eventually imprisoned him, but he escaped and went into exile. No one really knows what happened to him. Awesome.
Source: http://newmediarockstars.com/ What happened to the Jedi Temple (you know, where Anikin killed the younglings and broke our hearts?) after order 66? Apparently Emperor Palpatine decided to live there and turn it into his personal palace. Salt in the wound, much? But this wasn't just a statement of victory; apparently the Jedi had built the Temple over an ancient Sith shrine, possibly to contain something dark and horrid. The dark power it contained never died, and later Darth Sidious pulled on the reserves of dark energy there to lessen the power of the Jedi.
Source: http://newmediarockstars.com/ This hasn't been made clear in the movies (yet, perhaps it might), but there are Force users who aren't Jedi or Sith. We know Leia is Force sensitive (she clearly feels it in The Force Awakens when Han dies), but she doesn't USE the force, that we know of. However, Obi-Wan and Anikin encountered Force users on planet Mortis, and there are the Nightsisters of Dathomir who practice a kind of witchcraft based on The Force. The Force is an energy source, guys. It's your choices that decide your path.
Source: http://www.starwars.com/ Anakin Skywalker had a padawan named Ahsoka Tano. Between the events in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Anakin took Ahsoka on, and the two formed a strong bond. She was framed for murder and expelled from the Jedi Order after Palpatine put pressure on the Jedi Council. This is where Anakin's distrust of the Jedi Council started.
Source: http://screenrant.com/ Han Solo had a wife before he met Leia. Not a REAL wife, but he "married" a woman named Sana to pull a con on a gangster, which makes things a little awkward when Han and Leia run into her later and the "wife" jokes start....
Source: http://screenrant.com/ The only thing that all members of the Rebel Alliance have in common with each other is resisting the Empire in hopes to form a Republic. There's all kinds of people and beings that make up the Alliance, and they don't always get along. It's not as simple as black vs white, though for simplicity and time, the movies often portray it that way. You may also be surprised to learn that not every person aligned with The Empire is a blackhearted scallywag who wants to blow up planets, either. It's almost like individual characters are more nuanced than their political groups. But hey, it's just fantasy, right?
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org Bobba Fett unknowingly clues Vader into the fact that Luke is his son when he reports back to Darth Vader about who destroyed the Death Star, including his last name. He didn't know, up until this point, that his children were alive.
Source: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ The Yuuzhan-Vong, a race of entirely force-immune creatures from outside the Star Wars galaxy, invaded the Galaxy and used planet-sized ships that were wholly biological to wreak havoc and cause immense devastation, killing nearly 365 trillion sentient beings during their invasion before finally being halted.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong Darth Krayt, a human Jedi Master who survived the original Order 66, became a freakish hybrid thanks to Yuuzhan-Vong biological implants and Sith alchemy, eventually rising to rule the Sith over 100 years after the events of Episode VI, and he died several times over the next 40 years before it finally "stuck" and he uh, stayed dead.
Source: http://swfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Krayt_(Jasca_Ducato) One of the solo twins (yes, same twins), Jacen, eventually fell to the dark side, and became a sith lord, Darth Caedus. He was killed by his twin sister, but managed to redeem himself in the end and become a "good guy" in death because, ehh...that's what Skywalkers do. If there had been one family therapist in the galaxy long ago and far away, the movies never would have happened. Jacen Solo's film cannon counterpart is Kylo Ren, which raises all kinds of interesting questions about Rey.
Source: http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Caedus Abeloth (aka Bringer of Chaos) effectively became a deity through the Force, existing over 100,000 years before the movies and was imprisoned long ago. Her prison was known as The Maw, a series of closely clustered black holes. When Anakin Skywalker and Darth Sidious enacted the genocide of the Jedi Order, they unintentionally awoke Abeloth. She was finally defeated by Luke Skywalker with the assistance of Darth Krayt, though she was unable to be killed as she was a being made of The Force.
Source: http://star-wars-canon-extended.wikia.com/wiki/Abeloth Gray Jedi (or Gray) can mean one of two things - a force user who walked the line between Light and Dark without falling prey to The Dark Side, or a Jedi who chooses to separate himself or herself from the Jedi Counsel and operates outside of the Jedi Code. The term can refer to any Force user, not only Jedi.
Source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Jedi Mitth'raw'nuruodo, AKA Thrawn, served in the Naval Forces of the Galatic Emprire. A Chiss - Tall, blue skinned, red eyed humanish race - who took over the Empire's forces about five years after the events in Return of the Jedi, Thrawn's tactical prowess and reputation for being equally brilliant and ruthless has given him the reputation of "one of the most threatening antagonists" in the Star Wars universe. Timothy Zahn first wrote about Thrawn in 1991 in a book called Heir to the Empire, which ended up being the first in a set of books that came to be known as "The Thrawn Trilogy," the other two books being "Dark Force Rising" and "The Last Command." He's a very impressive bad guy...if you're into that kind of thing.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Admiral_Thrawn It strongly implied that Dark Side Warriors were trained by Palpatine to be Jedi hunters after the Clone Wars. These Jedi hunters are called the The Inquisitorius, it's agents Inquisitors, and it's suggested that before Anikin became a Sith, Emperor Palpatine kidnapped force sensitive younglings and trained them to hunt Jedis.
Source: http://screenrant.com/ The Black Sun criminal organization rose to prominence during the Clone Wars because the Jedi were focused on...other things. They were allied with Darth Maul via the Shadow Collective, and by the time of the book Shadows of the Empire (after Empire and before Return, in the movies), they were headed by Prince Vizor, who ended up trying to replace Vader in the Emperor's eyes. He failed.
Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/ Darth Vader wasn't well known by the average citizen; his powers were more of a fairy-tale or boogeyman than a real threat. Even in the Empire his powers were more rumor than fact. Jedis were gone, Siths were in hiding, and military men aren't exactly going to go around bragging about how their superior force choked them for wearing mismatching socks that morning. So imagine you're a safe, happy citizen of the Empire, the Empire protects you, and the only thing you know about The Rebels are what the Empire allows you to know. WE see the story from the point of view of the main characters, the tough choices, but it was much different for people not directly involved. And then, oh, by the way, your beloved government randomly blows up a planet.
Source: http://screenrant.com/ Chewbacca died, and they literally had to drop a freaking MOON on him for it to happen. Even then, it was his choice because he was saving someone. It happened in a novel released in 1999 by the AMAZING R.A. Salvatore called Vector Prime, It's the first in the longest series of novels about the Expanded Star Wars Universe, and if you like Star Wars, you should go read it for yourself; it's that good.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca Lists Going Viral Right Now
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