12 Things Disney Want You To Forget About Star Wars

8. The Death Of Chewbacca

Although the Expanded Universe was mostly kept exclusive for extreme Star Wars fandom, every now and then an element of it would creep out into the mainstream. The Thrawn Trilogy was a major event, with Heir To The Empire placing on the New York Times bestseller list and Shadows Of The Empire was just big enough to not slink by unnoticed, although none were as big as Vector Prime, the book that killed Chewbacca.

Yes, they killed Chewie. The book was already quite an event - hitting in the months following The Phantom Menace, it marked the start of the New Jedi Order series, which told of the extra-galactical Yuuzhan Vong's invasion - but it was this seismic change-up that really grabbed people's attention (there was even a TV commercial).

Like the death of Han in The Force Awakens, it was a well-thought out, carefully handled event that felt very much in-line with the character - the Vong sent a moon crashing into a planet and, while he was able to save some of the inhabitants and Anakin Solo, Chewie went down in the fire - and shaped the EU going forward.

It was so big, in fact, that since Disney made it non-canon they've not talked about it; not only was this was overwritten like the rest of the original post-Jedi continuity, but it's not been alluded to at all, possibly because of how much it clashes with where the movies are heading.