A Quick and Easy Guide to Star Wars Cannon

Marvelous Movies got a fan letter recently and it seemed like a perfect excuse to cross over with Faking Star Wars again; so sit back and let them be your guides through the complex and convoluted world of Star Wars!

Dear Marvelous Movies,
I found some old Star Wars books and comics at a local shop near me. They looked really interesting, and I wanted to read them, but my friend said they weren’t cannon anymore since the new Disney movies came out. Do you know what in Star Wars is cannon and what isn’t?
Thanks,
Lucas George of Modesto, CA

Great question, Lucas! Figuring out Star Wars cannon can seem challenging for sure, but it’s actually quite simple once you understand it! This quick and handy guide should be able to help!

So, within this galaxy far, far away and the technology available in-universe, there are mainly two different types of cannons used for various purposes. The first is a laser cannon. The second is an ion cannon.

Laser cannons were often used on starfighters, starships, and other vehicles. These are the most common types of cannon in the Star Wars universe. The Millennium Falcon is equipped with laser cannons, as are Imperial Star Destroyers and AT-AT walkers. Some droids, such as the super battle droids in Attack of the Clones, even had laser cannons built in! That’s how super they were!

Ion cannons are a bit different; they fire ionized particles capable of disrupting electronic systems. General Grievous’ ship, the Malevolence, was equipped with ion cannons, as were the Y-wing bombers used by the Rebellion. Later, the Rebels even used a stationary ion cannon to disable enemy Star Destroyers! So maybe they should have been called Star Destroyer Destroyers?

Those are the main kinds of cannons in Star Wars, but there are even a few others! For instance, Moff Gideon used something called an E-Web cannon on the season one finale of The Mandalorian! Introducing a whole new kind of weapon into this universe was just his way of trying to sound like even more of a badass!

So, Lucas, to answer your original question, all of the items mentioned above are cannon in Star Wars, whereas other types of weapons, like blasters and torpedoes, are not cannon. Other parts of a ship, such as the engine and the hyperdrive, are also not cannon. In fact, planets, droids, lightsabers, and pretty much everything else in the Star Wars universe aren’t cannon either!

Oh, and Star Wars books and comics from before 2015 don’t count anymore. Hope that helps!

Originally posted on Marvelous Movies.

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