Cannon Definition Story
Peppin Kishore
The canon of a work of fiction is "the body of works taking place in a particular fictional world that are widely considered to be official or authoritative; [especially] those created by the original author or developer of the world".[2] Canon is contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction and other derivative works.[3]
When there are multiple "official" works or original media, what material is canonical can be unclear. This is resolved either by explicitly excluding certain media from the status of canon (as in the case of Star Trek and Star Wars); by assigning different levels of canonicity to different media; by considering different but licensed media treatments official and equally canonical to the series timeline within their own continuities' universe, but not across them; or not resolved at all. There is also no consensus regarding who has the authority to decide what is or isn't canonical, with copyright holders usually declaring themselves the authorities when they want to erase or retcon materials that were approved by the setting's original creator (with Star Wars again being an example). The definition of canon is of particular importance with regard to reboots or re-imaginings of established franchises, such as the Star Trek remake (2009), because of the ways in which it influences the viewer experience.[4]
The official Star Trek website describes the Star Trek canon as "the events that take place within the episodes and movies", referring to the live-action television series and films, with Star Trek: The Animated Series having long existed in a nebulous gray area of canonicity.[5] Events, characters and storylines from tie-in novels, comic books, and video games are explicitly excluded from the Star Trek canon, but the site notes that elements from these sources have been subsequently introduced into the television series, and says that "canon is not something set in stone".[5]
During George Lucas's time with the franchise, the Star Wars canon was divided into discrete tiers that incorporated the Expanded Universe (EU), with continuity tracked by Lucasfilm creative executive Leland Chee. Higher-tier and newer material abrogated lower-tier and older material in case of contradiction. The live-action theatrical films, the 2008 The Clone Wars TV series and its debut film, and statements by Lucas himself were at the top of this hierarchy; such works invariably superseded EU material in case of contradiction. The EU itself was further divided into several descending levels of continuity.[6] After Disney's acquisition of the franchise, Lucasfilm designated all Expanded Universe material published prior to 25 April 2014 (other than the first six theatrical films and the 2008 The Clone Wars film and TV series) as the non-canonical "Legends" continuity. Material released since this announcement is a separate canonical timeline from the original George Lucas Canon, with all narrative development overseen by the Lucasfilm Story Group.[7]
The makers of Doctor Who have generally avoided making pronouncements about canonicity, with Russell T Davies explaining that he does not think about the concept for the Doctor Who television series or its spin-offs.[8][9][10]
The television series The Simpsons has as an example of non-canonical material the Treehouse of Horror episodes, a series of Halloween-themed specials with several stories that take place outside the normal continuity of the show.[11]
Several anime television series adapted from manga stories counts with some extra episodes with original stories that are not part of the original manga, often being referred to as "filler episodes", being outside of the canon of their source material.[12]
The canonical status of some works by the original writer but not the same publisher, such as "The Field Bazaar", may be debated.[13] This is because copyright used to be exercised by the publisher of the work of literature rather than the author.[14] Campaigning by Victor Hugo led to the Berne Convention which introduced author's rights.[15]
In film and television it is common that the original writer does not decide what is canon.[19] In literature, the estate of H. G. Wells authorised sequels by Stephen Baxter, The Massacre of Mankind (2017) and The Time Ships (1995).[20] Scarlett was a 1991 sequel to Gone with the Wind authorised by the estate.[21]
In 2010, the Conan Doyle estate authorised Young Sherlock Holmes[22] and The House of Silk.Sequels to the stories by P G Wodehouse about the butler Jeeves were sanctioned by Wodehouse's estate for Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (2013) by Sebastian Faulks and Jeeves and the King of Clubs (2018) by Ben Schott.[23] The Monogram Murders (2014) by Sophie Hannah is a sequel to Hercule Poirot novels authorised by the Agatha Christie estate.[24]
Fan fiction is almost never regarded as canonical. However, certain ideas may become influential or widely accepted within fan communities, who refer to such ideas as "fanon", a blend of fan and canon.[6][25] Similarly, the term "headcanon" is used to describe a fan's personal interpretation of a fictional universe.[26]
The Star Wars canon is the continually evolving body of authoritative works comprising the official story of Star Wars, encompassing movies, television series, novels, comics, and video games. George Lucas set the six Star Wars films and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as canon. These stories are defined to be the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.[2]
Since the 1990s, Lucasfilm Ltd. licensed a vast collection of interconnected stories produced by numerous authors, including comics, novels and video games, forming what was known as the official Star Wars Expanded Universe, existing parallel to the "universe" directly overseen by Lucas.[3] The Expanded Universe was referred to as "quasi-canon" as opposed to Lucas' canon, which was described to be the definitive canon,[4] or the "only true canon" among "different degrees of canon"[5] or "absolute canon."[6] In 2000, Lucas Licensing created an internal database tracking and organizing all the fictional elements created for the Star Wars universe, making up a hierarchical system listing different levels of canon, which could've been divided into George Lucas' canon and vision of the Star Wars universe, comprised of the six movies and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, occupying the highest level, which have had "absolute authority", whereas material collectively referred to as the Expanded Universe, constituting Lucas Licensing's vision, was ranked as lower level of canonicity.[7][8]
After The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm on October 30, 2012, the Expanded Universe was rebranded as Legends,[2] thus, the term "canon" came to be reserved exclusively for George Lucas' canon - the six movies and the seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars he developed and produced - and the movies, television series, novels, comics, toys and video games created by Lucasfilm after the acquisition, including but not limited to the Sequel Trilogy.
The Star Wars "gospel" or canon was first defined in Fall 1994 in the first issue of the Lucasfilm magazine Star Wars Insider,[9] by Lucasfilm Production Editor Sue Rostoni and Continuity Editor Allan Kausch:
The second edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe by Bill Slavicsek, published in March 1994, created a list with a coding system in accordance to the definition given by Rostoni and Kausch, clearly separating Star Wars materials into two distinct categories: the Original Trilogy, its adaptations - the novelizations and the radio dramas - were labeled as "original Lucasfilm source" whereas all the approximately seventy Star Wars related works published by Lucasfilm - the Thrawn Trilogy, the Dark Empire series, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game etc. - were labeled as "officially licensed source that may or may not agree with George Lucas' vision of the Star Wars galaxy."[10]
In the introduction to the 1994 printing of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Lucas offered his view on the evolution of the Star Wars universe, praising the many stories told by other authors about the characters he created:[11]
In 1996, The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, a reference book written by Mark Cotta Vaz, covering the Shadows of the Empire multimedia campaign, featured two, different canons: a chronology complied by continuity editors by Lucasfilm, and a collection of "the screenplays, novelizations and other core works."[12]
In January 2000, Lucasfilm hired Leland Chee to create an internal database for Lucas Licensing's Publishing department, called the "Holocron." The database replaced the "bibles"[14] tracking and organizing all the fictional elements created for the Star Wars universe, making up a hierarchical system listing different levels of canon. The database had a canon field for each individual entry and for sources. "G" canon referred to George Lucas' canon, initially made up only of the six Star Wars movies and unpublished internal notes from him or the movie production department. "C" canon, referring to continuity, consisted all licensed properties, thus including most of the Expanded Universe, whereas "S" canon, with the "S" standing for "secondary," encompassed works that were created before Lucasfilm strived to maintain an internal consistency within the Expanded Universe. "N" canon meant "non-continuity", used only in the case of blatant contradiction.[15][8]
In April 2000, in a post published on the official Star Wars forums, Sansweet clarified the distinction between canon and "quasi-canon" even further, referring to "different degrees of canon" among which there is "only one true canon":[5]
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