Summary
- Star Wars Legends, formerly known as the Expanded Universe, had a significant impact on the franchise and continues to influence it today.
- Legends added numerous comic books, novels, video games, animated shows, and spinoff films to the Star Wars universe, keeping viewers interested between films and trilogies.
- The lore and backstory of Star Wars films were further explored in Legends, with intricate details about planets, characters, and vehicles.
While no longer canon, the Star Wars Legends continuity has made a plethora of changes to the franchise, continuing to influence it to this day. Having debuted alongside the Star Wars films themselves, Star Wars Legends (formerly known as the Expanded Universe) has been a major part of the franchise for most of its history, adding numerous comic books, novels, video games, animated shows, and spinoff films to the Star Wars universe. Before being redesignated an alternate timeline, Legends was the official Star Wars continuity, with creatives and officials from Lucasfilm often directly stating as such throughout the franchise’s history.
The Star Wars Expanded Universe was renamed Legends and made an alternate continuity in 2014 to maximize creative freedom for the sequel trilogy. The only properties prior to 2014 that would carry over into the new canon would be the original six Star Wars saga films and 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, though the latter never truly fit into the Expanded Universe, having made a multitude of irrevocable changes to established lore. Due to this, The Clone Wars should be considered exclusive to the new Star Wars canon. As for the rest of the Legends continuity, here is how this now-bygone continuity has changed the Star Wars galaxy.
Your browser does not support the video tag. 12 Star Wars Legends Kept Viewers Interested Between Films & Trilogies 
Legends-exclusive Star Wars properties have been around for as long as the films themselves, with Marvel’s classic Star Wars comics including some of the first original stories after A New Hope. In addition to introducing Mandalorian lore, a glimpse into Boba Fett’s backstory, and unofficial Sith apprentices of Darth Vader, the comics made the three-year gaps between original trilogy films far easier to stomach. The same can be said of the original Clone Wars multimedia project for the prequels, and beloved properties like the Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, and the Jedi Knight video games kept interest in Star Wars alive between the original and prequel trilogies.
11 Star Wars Movie Lore Is Expanded By Legends 
The lore of the Star Wars films themselves is explored in detail in the Legends continuity as well. 1980's Star Wars radio drama explored the days preceding A New Hope and even depicted part of the Battle of Toprawa, in which the Death Star plans were stolen by Rebel spies. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars leads directly into Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis further delves into Palpatine’s backstory. Thanks to Legends, every planet, background character, and vehicle seen in the films has an intricate backstory.
