The 20 Biggest Retcons In Star Wars History

Across nearly five decades of movies, TV shows, books, comics, and video games, Star Wars has undergone several retcons as its sprawling continuity grew and developed. Star Wars fans have always been eager for more stories set in the galaxy far, far away, but the sheer number of releases means there will inevitably be contradictions in the timeline. Retcons allow writers to update the Star Wars saga to explain these contradictions or introduce new concepts.

George Lucas’ Star Wars movies included many retcons, some of which became crucial to the saga’s identity. Unlike authors who had to adhere to the films, Lucas had no obligation to respect the continuity of books and comics, creating contradictions that authors attempted to rectify. Upon purchasing the franchise, Disney evolved Star Wars into a trailblazing transmedia franchise, releasing a stream of new Star Wars movies and TV shows with more retcons. 20 of these retcons are the most memorable or had the biggest impact on the Star Wars franchise.

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20 Obi-Wan Knew R2-D2 Before A New Hope

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

When Luke Skywalker brought R2-D2 to Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, the Jedi Master claimed that he didn’t “…seem to remember ever owning a droid.”, but the Star Wars prequel trilogy revealed that this wasn’t the case. Obi-Wan met R2-D2 in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, then went on several missions with him during the Clone Wars. Of course, Obi-Wan never grew close to R2-D2 the way Anakin Skywalker did, so it’s possible that all astromech droids appeared the same to him. Even so, Obi-Wan’s line in A New Hope no longer aligns with Star Wars canon.

19 All The Stormtroopers Were Clones (Until They Weren’t)

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones introduced the Republic’s clone troopers, made from the DNA of bounty hunter Jango Fett. Lucas intended this to carry over to the original Star Wars trilogy, joking on the DVD commentary that the stormtroopers inherited Jango’s tendency to bump his head. However, the new Star Wars canon under Disney established that the stormtroopers were not clones of Jango, as the Empire switched to conscripted soldiers after the Clone Wars. This makes more sense since the stormtroopers don’t sound or act like clone troopers, but it goes against Lucas’ original intent.

18 Inhibitor Chips Forced The Clones To Comply With Order 66

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

The Kaminoans told Obi-Wan that the clones would obey orders without question, but it still seemed strange that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill the Jedi after serving them for years. Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 6 solved this problem by revealing that all clones had inhibitor chips that would force them to carry out Order 66, explaining why they didn’t question it. Some clones removed their inhibitor chips after learning of their existence, while experimental clones like the Bad Batch weren’t affected because of their unique genetic makeup.

17 Han Solo’s Last Name Became Literal

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Han Solo’s last name always reflected his nature as a loner, but Solo: A Star Wars Story gave it an in-universe explanation. Rather than the name he was born with, Han was given a last name on the spot by a random Imperial clerk after saying he was alone. Some viewers liked this reveal, giving an origin to a name that would eventually be known throughout the galaxy. Others felt it was a silly explanation for a name that never needed to be explained.

16 Obi-Wan And Anakin Met Their Respective Nemesis Between Films

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith implied Anakin and Count Dooku hadn’t seen each other since Attack of the Clones, while Obi-Wan and General Grievous seemed to have never fought each other. This was reconnected in The Clone Wars, which had the characters duel multiple times throughout the war. Revenge of the Sith now serves as a finale to a long rivalry between the characters, even if it contradicts the movie’s dialogue.

15 Obi-Wan Met Leia And Darth Vader Between Episodes III And IV

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Leia Organa appeared to have no personal connection to Obi-Wan in A New Hope, while Darth Vader’s dialogue suggested that he hadn’t seen his old master since Revenge of the Sith. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi had Obi-Wan meet both characters between the prequel and original trilogies, adding new context to A New Hope. Obi-Wan’s reaction to Leia’s holo message and Leia’s eagerness upon hearing “Ben Kenobi” can now be interpreted as an emotional connection. Obi-Wan’s duel with Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi also clarified why he called his old apprentice “Darth” instead of Anakin.

14 Darth Vader Had A Secret Apprentice

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Legends)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed introduced Galen Marek, codename “Starkiller,” the son of a Jedi survivor taken by Vader at a young age and trained as his apprentice. This was a surprising revelation at the time, having Vader raise Starkiller long before he knew he had a son. While Starkiller may no longer exist in the official Star Wars canon, he wasn’t Vader’s only student.

13 Anakin Skywalker Had A Padawan

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Around the same time Vader was given a dark-side apprentice, the world was introduced to Anakin’s Jedi Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Vader told Obi-Wan in A New Hope that he was “…but the learner…” when they last saw each other, while Anakin longed to be a Jedi Master in Revenge of the Sith. This made it especially shocking when The Clone Wars made Anakin a “master” to his own Padawan, which seemed to contradict the movies. However, Ahsoka became one of the most beloved Star Wars characters, returning in Star Wars Rebels and receiving her own live-action spinoff.

12 Darth Maul Survived Being Cut In Half

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Getting cut in half by Obi-Wan seemed to be the end of Darth Maul after The Phantom Menace, with further appearances limited to prequels, clones, and non-canon stories. However, Lucas was determined to bring Maul back in some capacity, planning to use the Sith Lord in a canceled video game and his treatments for the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Maul eventually returned in the fourth season of The Clone Wars, sporting a pair of robotic legs and determined to exact vengeance on Obi-Wan. He later became a recurring character in Rebels and was revealed as the true leader of Crimson Dawn in Solo.

11 Anakin Skywalker Was The Chosen One

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

When Anakin redeemed himself by killing Palpatine and saving his son, no one but Lucas could have predicted that it was part of an ancient prophecy. The Phantom Menace made Anakin a Chosen One, prophesied to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force, adding more weight to his final act in Return of the Jedi. The movie also explained that Anakin had a higher midi-chlorian count than any Jedi and may have been conceived by the midi-chlorians to fulfill his destiny.

10 Jedi Could Save Others From Death

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian

Revenge of the Sith showed that only the Sith sought power over death, while the Jedi accepted it as a natural part of life. Anakin turned to the dark side because Palpatine convinced him that the power to heal others couldn’t be learned from a Jedi. However, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian introduced Force healing to Star Wars canon in 2019, with Rey and Grogu able to heal critical wounds in seconds. This means saving others from death is possible for Jedi, at least with some individuals.

9 Anyone Can Learn To Wield The Force

Ahsoka

The Star Wars movies also presented the Force as something only some people could wield, especially when the prequel trilogy introduced the concept of midi-chlorians. Even so, Lucas believed anyone could learn to wield the Force with enough training, and Ahsoka made this canon with Sabine Wren. Despite having the lowest Force potential than any Jedi candidate in history, Sabine learned to move objects with the Force. It opens new possibilities for the franchise by making anyone a potential Jedi candidate for Rey’s New Jedi Order.

8 Rey Went From A Nobody To A Palpatine

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The Star Wars sequel trilogy went back and forth with Rey’s parents, first hinting they could be someone significant before The Last Jedi revealed they were nobody. The Rise of Skywalker retconned this explanation by making Rey the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, creating a dilemma similar to Luke and Vader in the original trilogy. Some viewers liked this explanation for delivering a shocking twist and justifying Rey’s power levels; others were disappointed that Rey was part of a legacy instead of being her own character.

7 Darth Vader Was Luke’s Father

The Empire Strikes Back

The first Star Wars retcon came in The Empire Strikes Back when Vader uttered the now iconic “I am your father.” This changed the entire backstory of the original trilogy in one line, revealing that Luke’s father and Vader were the same, challenging everything Luke and the audience thought they knew about Star Wars. It also reframed the trilogy, and subsequently, the saga, to be about Vader’s redemption. The Empire Strikes Back changed Star Wars forever with this retcon and created the best twist in film history.

6 Padmé Died Immediately After Luke And Leia Were Born

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

When Luke learned Leia was his sister, he asked what she remembered of their mother, and Leia could recall her face and emotional state. Leia’s memory was called into question when Revenge of the Sith had Padmé Amidala die immediately after giving birth to Luke and Leia. Lucas acknowledged that Padmé’s death didn’t perfectly align with Return of the Jedi, but he felt it was an effective way to add greater tragedy to the end of the prequel trilogy. Star Wars books and comics have proposed different explanations for Leia remembering her mother, from her being mistaken to possessing a unique Force ability that allowed her to recall specific images.

5 Luke And Leia Became Siblings

Return of the Jedi

The only more shocking reveal than Luke’s parentage was his having a secret sibling throughout the original trilogy. Luke’s sister was originally going to be a new character who was also trained as a Jedi, but after Lucas abandoned plans for more movies, Leia became Luke’s sister instead. This was hard for many viewers to grasp, especially since Luke and Leia had a few romantic scenes in the first two movies. The prequel trilogy clarified how the two were separated and why Obi-Wan and Yoda kept the truth from Luke.

4 “Somehow Palpatine Returned”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Canon) and Star Wars: Dark Empire (Legends)

Return of the Jedi ended with Palpatine falling down a chasm and exploding, so it seemed impossible that he could ever return. The team behind Star Wars: Dark Empire thought differently, with Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy deciding to bring the Emperor back six years after Return of the Jedi. Although this comic was made non-canon in 2014, The Rise of Skywalker brought Palpatine back 31 years after Return of the Jedi as the secret mastermind behind the First Order. Dark Empire explained in detail how Palpatine cheated death with clones, whereas The Rise of Skywalker limited the reveal to “Somehow Palpatine returned.”

3 The Death Star’s Weakness Was Sabotage

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has the unique distinction of being a Star Wars movie where the entire plot is a retcon. The story revealed that Death Star’s design flaw from A New Hope was intentional sabotage by Galen Erso, who told the rebels where they could steal the plans to exploit this weakness. Not only does this explain why the Death Star had a tiny design flaw that could somehow destroy the entire station, but its destruction is more satisfying knowing how much Galen and the members of Rogue One sacrificed to save the galaxy.

2 Ezra Bridger Saved Ahsoka Tano With Time Travel

Star Wars Rebels

Rebels season 4 created a literal, in-universe retcon when Ezra Bridger saved Ahsoka from Vader by pulling her into the World Between Worlds. Ezra’s actions proved that time travel was possible in the Star Wars universe and created the most unique retcon in the franchise. No other retcon has altered the Star Wars timeline in this manner, though one decision did change the timeline altogether.

1 Disney Made The Entire Expanded Universe Non-Canon

One massive retcon

After purchasing the Star Wars franchise in 2012, Disney wanted the freedom to tell new stories without being constrained by decades of continuity. On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm announced that the sequel trilogy wouldn’t tell the same story as the Expanded Universe and that everything but the movies and The Clone Wars was relegated to “Legends” status. This essentially made the entire EU an alternate continuity, creating a new Star Wars canon timeline that could use or disregard Legends stories. No other retcon affected the galaxy far, far away on this scale, making Legends the biggest retcon in Star Wars history.