Del Rey Announces ‘Star Wars’ Essential Legends Collection

Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm from it’s now parent company Disney, the Star Wars franchise has exploded with new content, however, with a rather unwelcomed trade-off. The plethora of comics and books that became known as the Expanded Universe were quickly swept under the rug when Mickey decided to not recognize them as canon. It caused a huge uproar in the fandom which led to a huge division that has continued on to this day.

In response to this, Disney has recently released new “vintage” content on Disney+ like many Ewok titles and Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated Clone Wars series. Additionally, Star Wars publisher Del Rey has recently announced a re-release of some Legends novels “in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm.” The first three books added to The Essential Legends Collection (as they call it) are Heir to the Empire, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, and Shatterpoint. You can read the official announcement from Del Rey below:

“In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm, Del Rey is curating a collection of essential and beloved ‘Star Wars’ novels from the past.

Novels set in a galaxy far, far away have enriched the ‘Star Wars’ experience for fans seeking to continue the adventure beyond the screen. When he created ‘Star Wars,’ George Lucas built a universe that sparked the imagination, and inspired others to create. He opened up that universe to be a creative space for other people to tell their own tales. This became known as the Expanded Universe, or EU, of novels, comics, videogames, and more.

To this day, the EU remains an inspiration for ‘Star Wars’ creators and is published under the label Legends. Ideas, characters, story elements, and more from new ‘Star Wars’ entertainment trace their origins back to material from the Expanded Universe. This Essential Legends Collection curates some of the most treasured stories from that expansive legacy.

The collection will launch on June 15, 2021, with new trade paperback editions of ‘Heir to the Empire’ by Timothy Zahn, ‘Darth Bane: Path of Destruction’ by Drew Karpyshyn, and ‘Shatterpoint’ by Matthew Stover. Each edition will have a new book cover with original artwork. Tracie Ching is the cover artist of ‘Heir to the Empire,’ Simon Goinard is the cover artist of ‘Path of Destruction,’ and Jeff Manning is the cover artist of ‘Shatterpoint.’ In addition to the new cover, ‘Shatterpoint’ will also receive an all-new unabridged audiobook edition, narrated by Sullivan Jones.

Del Rey will be continuing to add classic titles to the Essential Legends Collection, with the next additions publishing in Fall 2021.”

Check out the new covers for The Essential Legends Collection:

The Essential Legends Collection releases on June 15, 2021 with new subsequent classic titles being added to the collection beginning Fall 2021.

Which Legends novels would you like to see added to the collection?