Since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, the rebooted Star Wars universe has seen a level of interconnectivity along the lines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars: Squadrons is just the latest installment. Much like any other series, Star Wars has an official canon storyline in which any game, book, show or movie falls into. Unlike the previous Expanded Universe, the new Star Wars canon has a system in place to ensure that each installment of the franchise fits together properly to form a cohesive universe.
The Lucasfilm Story Group is a small team whose job is to help in the development of new Star Wars stories. They work to prevent contradictions within the canon as well as tying the various stories together. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s one designed to prevent the Star Wars canon from devolving into a complete mess like the old Expanded Universe. And there are several significant connections to be made within Squadrons.
Right away, Squadrons introduces players to Rae Sloane and Hera Syndulla. Star Wars fans will recognize the names, as Rae Slone was an Imperial officer in the Star Wars: Aftermath novels who played a prominent role in the transition from the Empire to the First Order, and Hera Syndulla was a Rebel pilot in Star Wars Rebels who became one of the leading generals in the Rebel Alliance. Other characters like Darth Vader, Wedge Antilles, and Bail Organa make appearances, but it was not at all surprising that two important non-movie characters were the ones in command throughout Squadrons. Star Wars likes to cross over its characters as it keeps fan favorites in the spotlight and gives people a rough idea of what point in time each story takes place.
With each new installment of the Star Wars franchise, there is almost an overload of canon material, and Squadrons is no different. Whether it’s an obscure family name of a side character, the birth of a new class of ship, or laying the ground work for an upcoming era, Squadrons has references and connections to the Star Wars canon all over the place. It’s generally pretty easy to identify where in the overall timeline a new installment takes place, but entries like Squadrons really attach themselves to the canon through all of these random little connections throughout the galaxy.
Lucasfilm Relies Too Heavily On Interconnecting Stories
Whether it’s a backstory for some random background character or a weird scientific explanation for the Force, Star Wars has a long history of providing explanations for things that don’t need it. With the new Star Wars canon and Lucasfilm Story Group, that’s been taken to the extreme as it relates to interconnectivity. Every installment doesn’t have to be stuffed with connections to all the other pieces of Star Wars media for the canon to work as one cohesive universe. It’s cool seeing a character like Hera making a return, but when each installments forces an endless list of connections, it really ties new stories down and gets in the way of being their own thing. Star Wars has begun to rely too heavily on interconnectivity, like a crutch.
It’s important to note that these side stories in the Star Wars universe do not require people to know all of the other stories. It’s not necessary to watch an animated show and read three books for the game to be good or make sense to players. There are a ton of references and Easter Eggs for hardcore fans who engage with a lot of the non-movie Star Wars material, but each story is generally able to stand on its own. But the over reliance on crossovers is becoming exhausting and it’s not necessary for something like Star Wars: Squadrons to be a good installment in the franchise.
