Star Wars expanded to other media
Although the "Star Wars" film series itself has never been rebooted, a decision was made, due to works set after the original trilogy that contradict and deviate from Lucas' own view of the "Star Wars" story, to discard the "EU" works from the franchise canon. Lucas decided to cease creative involvement after selling, in October 2012, the "Star Wars" franchise as well as Lucasfilm (the production company of "Star Wars") to The Walt Disney Company. When Disney began development of a sequel trilogy of films and other works, and needed its films to have full creative freedom unbound by the "EU", nearly all "EU" works were removed from "Star Wars" franchise canon and rebranded as "Star Wars Legends". (The two 2008 "EU" works which remained in canon were and its .)
Star Wars comics
Charles Lippincott, Lucasfilm's publicity supervisor, initially approached publisher Stan Lee at Marvel Comics in 1975 about publishing a "Star Wars" comic book prior to the film's release as a means to appeal to its most likely audience. Lee initially declined to consider such a proposal until the film was completed, and was only persuaded otherwise in a second meeting arranged by Roy Thomas, who wanted to edit the series. Since movie tie-in comics rarely sold well at that time, Lee negotiated a publishing arrangement which gave no royalties to Lucasfilm until sales exceeded 100,000. At that point, legal arrangements could be revisited. Issue #1 of "Star Wars" was released for sale on April 12, 1977, and Marvel published the series from 1977 to 1986, lasting 107 issues and three "Annual"s. According to former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, the strong sales of "Star Wars" comics saved Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvel's "Star Wars" series was one of the industry's top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The only downside for Marvel was that the 100,000 copy sales quota was surpassed quickly, allowing Lippincott to renegotiate the royalty arrangements from a position of strength.