Announcing The Star Wars Canon Timeline Podcast!

[00:00:00] A new Star Wars journey begins in the place all good journeys begin. At, well, the beginning.

[00:00:06] This Star Wars day, I'm excited to introduce the new Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast where we will

[00:00:12] piece together the complete story of that galaxy far, far away in timeline order from the dawn of

[00:00:18] the Jedi through the great unknown following the sequel trilogy. This is a podcast for both

[00:00:23] Star Wars super fans and complete newbies. Listen to the short intro episode now to hear how it works

[00:00:30] and what to expect over the coming weeks as we set the stage for the new television series,

[00:00:34] The Acolyte, which we will be covering with weekly breakdowns. Subscribe to the Star Wars

[00:00:39] Canon Timeline podcast wherever you listen to take part in one of the most epic and expansive

[00:00:44] stories ever told following all the twists and turns from start to finish. May the fourth be

[00:00:50] with you all, all month and beyond. Hello, Wool-Shift Dust crew. And today being the day

[00:01:01] that it is especially happy Star Wars Day to those who celebrate. I've made some casual mention

[00:01:07] in this podcast and elsewhere of a Star Wars timeline podcast project I've been working on,

[00:01:13] a podcast for both Star Wars mega fans and Star Wars newbies. And now I'm finally ready

[00:01:18] to start releasing it to the world. If you're curious what this project's all about, then

[00:01:23] listen on here for a quick intro episode that lays out exactly how it's going to work and what

[00:01:28] to expect next. If you like what you hear, you'll find a link in the show notes where you can

[00:01:33] subscribe via your favorite podcast app to make sure you won't miss the Star Wars Canon Timeline

[00:01:38] podcast episodes to come. Thank you for lending me your ears and may the fourth be with you.

[00:02:01] Hello and welcome to the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast or as I like to call it

[00:02:06] for short, to swoot. You know, it really rolls off the tongue. No, no, I promise I won't call it

[00:02:12] that often. I am Alicia Brenner, writer, translator, podcaster, lifelong Star Wars

[00:02:18] lover and person you'll be gradually getting to know as we go on a journey through the entire

[00:02:23] Star Wars Canon starting at the beginning through the new TV show The Acolyte dropping next month

[00:02:29] and beyond covering events in the order in which they occur in the timeline through each

[00:02:34] of the nine official eras of Star Wars Canon. And I'll explain what all that means in just a

[00:02:40] moment because this is a podcast that's not only for fans who want to experience their favorite

[00:02:45] world in a new order, but also people completely fresh to the series who want to get up to speed.

[00:02:50] I'll always let you know in advance what we'll be covering next, but it's up to you if you

[00:02:55] want to read, watch or play along or if you just want to listen to our episodes for a

[00:03:00] Cliffs Note edition of the key takeaways from anything that doesn't interest you or you don't

[00:03:04] have time for. We will never assume that you have seen or read the thing, but we will be adding

[00:03:08] deeper commentary for those who have. Either way, you'll not only be able to keep up with any

[00:03:13] Star Wars talk at your next cocktail party, you'll be the one leading the discussion.

[00:03:18] I'm doing this because I think it's hard even for the biggest fans of Star Wars to wrap our

[00:03:23] heads around the order of events in the Star Wars universe because the timeline is being

[00:03:28] filled in in a somewhat chaotic order. So this podcast is going to give us a chance to examine

[00:03:33] the history of this fictional universe to see how events of an earlier age create the key

[00:03:38] conflicts of later eras and how the characters we love are shaped and in turn shape this galaxy

[00:03:43] far, far away. And maybe some others as well, but we'll get to that eventually.

[00:03:48] This is a podcast, as I said, designed for both hardcore Star Wars fans like me,

[00:03:52] as well as people experiencing for the first time. So I really mean I'm going to assume

[00:03:57] zero knowledge and I will work not to spoil any story twists until they're revealed by the timeline,

[00:04:03] even iconic twists from the original films. I might mention names most people know,

[00:04:08] like for example that the planet of Alderaan is where a character named Leia grew up.

[00:04:14] Most of you probably already know who this character is and will find it interesting

[00:04:18] to note that the planet we're talking about happens to be the one where she grew up.

[00:04:22] But those of you who don't know who Leia is, honestly that's even better. I'm so excited for

[00:04:27] you to experience these stories with a fresh perspective. This means that you will be

[00:04:31] experiencing the big reveals and story elements of this saga based on when they took place

[00:04:37] in the timeline of Star Wars in universe history. And yes, this means if it's your

[00:04:43] first time experiencing the Star Wars story, you will learn some twists in a different order

[00:04:47] than people who watched the films and everything else when it released.

[00:04:50] And that's just part of the fun in this experiment. I for one love to experience

[00:04:56] stories in timeline order because you really get to see how it all holds together. We will

[00:05:03] definitely be examining that as we go along, but also just making sense of the events and

[00:05:09] what leads to what and why things are the way they are by the time we get to the original

[00:05:14] trilogy and beyond. But yes, in general I won't consider it a spoiler that a certain character

[00:05:19] exists. I promise not to tell you how they enter or influence the story until you get to see that

[00:05:24] for yourself. And for those of you who already know the complete story but want to experience

[00:05:29] it in order then great this is the perfect podcast for you. I hope you'll share your

[00:05:34] thoughts and insights along the way. So yes, I've been using the word we and I don't mean

[00:05:39] the royal we. I will be your host, but I'll be bringing in a range of guests and co-hosts as we go,

[00:05:45] different people with different perspectives and areas of expertise. So for example if you're

[00:05:49] listening at the time of publication, the next episode will be with Dead Eye Jedi Bob who

[00:05:55] that's probably someone you'll be hearing from a lot. He's a Star Wars super fan who's read

[00:05:59] an enormous amount of both canon and legends content in addition to watching everything.

[00:06:04] And an episode after that you'll meet Marchin who's played more Star Wars games than most

[00:06:08] fans have ever even heard of. So and that's just the first two episodes I'll be introducing

[00:06:13] more people as we go. Of course no one can have watched and read everything in this behemoth IP

[00:06:20] but we're all big fans and we'll be at least mentioning every book, comic, game,

[00:06:24] kid show etc etc that's ID'd as part of the official timeline. And by ID'd I mean we're

[00:06:31] following the evolving timeline laid out on wikipedia which is the main wiki of Star Wars

[00:06:35] nerds and they do a good job placing things on the timeline and it's the best place to look

[00:06:41] whenever you have questions. However do be careful of course because spoilers spoilers spoilers.

[00:06:47] The episodes in this podcast will largely focus on the biggest properties so that's the films

[00:06:53] and tv shows which occasionally will include live weekly coverage like with the acolyte coming

[00:06:57] up and for shows that have already been released we'll be covering them a few episodes

[00:07:02] at a time. In addition to that we'll also be dedicating episodes to the biggest games and key

[00:07:08] books and comics while other books and games that are less important to the overall story

[00:07:13] will merely get a mention. I can't of course cover every detail of this expansive world as

[00:07:18] much as I would love to try but of course we will make sure you know what's important

[00:07:22] and go back and fill in the gaps and timeline details as needed. You'll find a link

[00:07:26] in the show notes that will take you to a basic timeline of key movies shows books and

[00:07:32] games we'll be covering in more depth. We'll be fleshing out this reference as we release episodes

[00:07:37] so you'll find this link in the show notes for every episode giving those of you who like to

[00:07:41] plan ahead a chance to catch up on your gaming or reading as you like but don't feel pressured

[00:07:46] to read and play everything yourself. So since we'll be talking about this in timeline order

[00:07:51] starting at the beginning of the star wars canon timeline and slowly working our way through

[00:07:55] let me give you a couple pieces of key terminology that we're going to be using over

[00:07:59] and over and over again. So first of all the star wars dating system you're going to hear a lot of

[00:08:07] ABY and BBY so everything we're talking about here at the beginning is BBY because what that

[00:08:13] means is before the battle of Yavin. You don't need to know what the battle of Yavin is

[00:08:18] it's an event linked to the original star wars movie so in the dating system that we'll be using

[00:08:24] the original star wars movie is year zero. Anything that happens before is BBY and anything

[00:08:30] that happens after is ABY. Well we might explain some other dating systems that exist in the

[00:08:36] universe as they're mentioned but to keep things simple we'll almost always use ABY and BBY

[00:08:42] the other ones really aren't important. So this month as I said we're starting at the very

[00:08:48] beginning thousands of years that means before the battle of Yavin and the acolyte takes place

[00:08:55] around 132 BBY so 132 years before the events of the original star wars film released in 77.

[00:09:02] So okay star wars dating system BBY ABY the other important thing that we have to talk about

[00:09:07] right out the bat is canon versus legends now when Disney bought Lucas Films the creators of

[00:09:14] Star Wars they decided that everything released before April 25th 2014 so that's all of the books

[00:09:21] and games at least were no longer canon. This was obviously a hugely controversial moment in

[00:09:27] Star Wars fandom it still is I'm not here to litigate that fact I'm just telling you what

[00:09:32] happened. So all of these prior releases are now considered legends or sometimes called the

[00:09:37] extended universe and the explanation is you know you can think of these stories as

[00:09:42] legends in Star Wars history and legends aren't always true some might turn out to be others

[00:09:48] will not. So after that decanonization only the movies and the animated series the clone wars

[00:09:56] remained canon as in these were the only things at that time considered the true in

[00:10:02] universe history of Star Wars and now of course any media TV movies comics games etc

[00:10:08] released after April of 2014 is also considered canon with a few exceptions we'll talk about when

[00:10:14] we get there. The focus of this podcast is all the canon material but we'll discuss key elements

[00:10:21] of legends as we go so that you can hang with the real Star Wars nerds don't worry you'll know

[00:10:26] who Mara Jade is and why you should care even if we never see her in canon and yeah and one

[00:10:32] of the first episodes we're going to be doing is talking about the old republic games

[00:10:37] which these are officially legends but these are games that people are still playing today

[00:10:43] and there have been references to characters from these games in canon so it's most likely

[00:10:49] a lot of this will be made canon we'll explain all of that you know when we're

[00:10:53] talking about the stories of these games but just suffice it to say that a lot of legends

[00:10:58] lore is being pulled into canon so when we think that there's a character that you just

[00:11:03] gotta know we'll include that in the discussion and always make sure you know what's what.

[00:11:07] We will be talking through the nine eras officially identified by Lucasfilms in order

[00:11:14] I won't say most of the names of the eras until we get there because of spoilers they're very

[00:11:20] spoilery names but I will say the first three which will be breezing through this month so

[00:11:24] the first era is Dawn of the Jedi, second is the Old Republic and the third era is the

[00:11:29] High Republic. Now these are the least fleshed out areas of canon so we'll be giving you a good

[00:11:34] background going into the acolyte which is set toward the end of the High Republic,

[00:11:38] the third era and as I said we'll be covering that weekly as episodes release. Future Star

[00:11:44] Wars releases won't necessarily be covered live in the main podcast feed unless we have already

[00:11:50] reached that point in the timeline in which they are set but for example when season two

[00:11:54] of the acolyte comes out we will be going back in to fill that in on a live weekly basis

[00:12:00] and of course Star Wars releases out of order so when content from earlier in the timeline

[00:12:06] release so for instance you know when season two of the acolyte comes out will probably be

[00:12:11] in phases four or five maybe so I'll backdate the episodes so that they appear in the episode

[00:12:18] list where they should be in the timeline so that when you look at your episode list

[00:12:24] it will always be a quick reference of the order of events and titles in the universe

[00:12:29] and we'll especially be going back to these early eras that we're talking about this month

[00:12:34] because these are the least fleshed out in canon but with shows like the acolyte,

[00:12:38] the High Republic books, the Dawn of the Jedi movie that's been promised to us and other

[00:12:41] projects in the pipeline that's quickly changing. But don't worry when I backdate episodes as

[00:12:47] long as you're a subscriber you'll get the notification and I'll explain things in more

[00:12:52] detail as we go. I'll make sure that you're always notified when new episodes come out

[00:12:58] and I'll update this intro episode periodically to make sure everything is crystal clear.

[00:13:02] Some stories of course also play out at the same time the Star Wars universe and also some

[00:13:07] other stories include flashbacks to earlier points in the timeline. I've thought most of

[00:13:12] these through and we'll be handling it on a case-by-case basis. This makes the most sense.

[00:13:16] We don't want to get too sloppy in our watch order except for one weird watch experiment I

[00:13:20] want to do at the end of the fourth age. Anthology series like Tales of the Jedi and

[00:13:25] Tales of the Empire we will be covering out of order depending on when each episode is set

[00:13:31] and we will also be covering visions though that is legends. It's some of the coolest

[00:13:36] animation and best storytelling in Star Wars and it definitely you can't consider yourself

[00:13:41] you know a total Star Wars fan without having watched Visions. This is obviously a living

[00:13:47] timeline this is an experiment in form I'm going to make sure there's plenty of reminders

[00:13:51] whenever this weird timing stuff actually happens but don't be surprised if you see a

[00:13:56] movie or a show breakdown in the episode list dated before that movie or show even came out.

[00:14:01] I'll add dates to the episode titles when they're released out of order so that you

[00:14:04] know when they were actually released at a glance but ultimately our episode list is a slave

[00:14:11] to the timeline. So to get us started this month if you're listening at the time of release

[00:14:16] you'll be getting a series of what's planned to be four episodes laying out the background

[00:14:21] of the beginnings of the galaxy far far away where Star Wars takes place and of course

[00:14:25] important to note that every Star Wars story begins with a long time ago in a galaxy far

[00:14:29] far away so we talk about Star Wars in the past tense. So we'll be talking through

[00:14:34] the history of this galaxy far far away leading up to the events of the acolyte

[00:14:40] and then after our weekly coverage when we're ready to move on from these early eras we'll jump

[00:14:45] forward a hundred years to the fourth era the time of the prequel trilogy of films in a massive

[00:14:51] animated series you might have heard of called the Clone Wars which rough as it starts by the

[00:14:56] end most will call some of the greatest storytelling in all of Star Wars. I might not

[00:15:00] tell you the name of this particular era until the end of it though because it's a massive

[00:15:04] spoiler and after that we'll jump into the fifth era the time between the prequel and original

[00:15:10] trilogies one of the two points in the timeline most being filled in by new Star Wars content so

[00:15:15] this includes the bad batch the Jedi games titles like Solo Obi-Wan Kenobi Rebels and or

[00:15:21] Rogue One and after that is the sixth era this is the time of the original trilogy

[00:15:26] but don't worry you'll meet characters like Darth Vader before that this is also the

[00:15:30] era of the new Outlaws game you might have seen trailers for recently and the seventh era is the

[00:15:36] other era where we'll find most of the newest content like the Mandalorian and the other shows

[00:15:41] that crosses over with in the eighth era is a time of the sequel trilogy and finally the ninth

[00:15:47] era does have a name again spoiler I'll tell you later but we have no content for it yet

[00:15:52] other than a promise we're getting a movie starring Daisy Ridley but by the time we get

[00:15:56] that far we should know a lot more each era will be marked as a separate season in the episode list

[00:16:02] so there's gonna be nine seasons in total but these seasons are going to be a wildly different

[00:16:06] length depending on how much content is in that era as a rough schedule after this initial

[00:16:11] blitz of releases and weekly accolade coverage episodes will be released about every two weeks

[00:16:17] and each episode will be linked in the spoiler free list timeline that you'll find

[00:16:23] linked in the episode notes just a couple general notes about language first of all

[00:16:28] fun facts that you should know about Star Wars is that while it sounds from our perspective

[00:16:33] like most of the characters are speaking English they're actually speaking basic so basic is

[00:16:39] the common language spoken throughout the galaxy and it's the language people speak to be able

[00:16:44] to understand each other but it's definitely not the only language you'll be hearing as we

[00:16:47] go through this there's many others as for language in this podcast there will be probably

[00:16:54] the occasional curse word or adult conversation but more importantly there will be regular

[00:16:59] discussion of traumatic topics like genocide because Star Wars storytelling never shies away

[00:17:03] from a genocide and it looks at the struggles between the best and absolute worst sides of

[00:17:08] humanity which is exactly what makes these stories so timeless and enduring so we'll be

[00:17:13] covering everything from kids content to very mature content without differentiating so please

[00:17:17] keep that in mind thank you for bearing through this little explainer intro ep um i

[00:17:24] hope everything's clear but if you have any questions please do ask away just send an email

[00:17:29] to swtimelinepodcast at gmail.com and you'll find that link in the show notes and of course

[00:17:35] i could really use your help getting the word out the two best things you can do are simple

[00:17:39] and free just share this feed with anyone you think is ready to take their star wars

[00:17:43] relationship to the next level and leave a five-star rating wherever you're listening

[00:17:47] this is not only how we convince the algorithm to recommend the podcast to other people who

[00:17:51] like this sort of listening but also helps people who are on the fence unsure of which

[00:17:56] podcast to choose and see if so many podcasts helps them decide that this one might be doing

[00:18:01] something different and it's maybe worth a listen now this podcast is part of the

[00:18:06] lorehounds network you'll be hearing more about that and what else we're covering in upcoming

[00:18:10] episodes but that's enough of me talking for today now if you are ready to board this starship

[00:18:17] the first full episodes are coming fast as of may 2024 the next episode is an overview of

[00:18:22] the dawn of the jedi and the old republic with jedi jedi bob there's no watching or

[00:18:27] reading or whatever quote-unquote homework for the first overview episode but if you want to

[00:18:32] play around with the knights of the old republic games and or the old republic mmo

[00:18:36] that will be the next episode after that just make sure that you're subscribed to the feed

[00:18:40] and you'll be notified as soon as these episodes release and we'll make sure that

[00:18:44] you get the most out of the acolyte and the rest of the star wars universe as possible

[00:18:48] this is the way

[00:19:02] it

[00:19:08] a new star wars journey begins in the place all good journeys begin at well the beginning

[00:19:15] this star wars day i'm excited to introduce the new star wars canon timeline podcast

[00:19:20] where we will piece together the complete story of that galaxy far far away in timeline order

[00:19:26] from the dawn of the jedi through the great unknown following the sequel trilogy

[00:19:31] this is a podcast for both star wars super fans and complete newbies listen to the short

[00:19:36] intro episode now to hear how it works and what to expect over the coming weeks as we set

[00:19:41] the stage for the new television series the acolyte which we will be covering with weekly

[00:19:45] breakdowns subscribe to the star wars canon timeline podcast wherever you listen to take

[00:19:51] part in one of the most epic and expansive stories ever told following all the twists and

[00:19:55] turns from start to finish may the fourth be with you all all month and beyond