Retcon

• In Episode IV, Ben Kenobi told Luke Skywalker that his father was betrayed and murdered by a pupil of his, Darth Vader.Episode V reveals Darth Vader to be Luke Skywalker's father. In Episode VI, Obi-Wan explained to Luke what he meant by telling him that Vader murdered his father, informing what he said was true, "from a certain point of view", since the Anakin that Obi-Wan remembered fondly "was destroyed" when he fell to the dark side of the Force, and therefore no longer considers him "Anakin" (this is supported by Obi-Wan only calling Vader "Darth" in Episode IV and not by his real name). While the in-universe explanation holds up fairly well, whether or not this was actually a retcon out of universe is one of the most hotly debated topics concerning the original trilogy. This point was explained in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• In the original release of Episode IV, Han Solo proceeded to pre-emptively shoot Greedo, while in later re-releases up to the Disney acquisition it was shown that Greedo shot first and missed Han by inches while Han shot back, with Lucas later claiming that Greedo always shot first in spite of the shooting script stating otherwise. This infamously resulted in the "Han shot first" controversy among fans.
• In Episode IV, Ben Kenobi says the Old Republic existed for a thousand generations, which Expanded Universe sources interpreted to mean 25,000 years. However, in Episode II, Palpatine said that the Republic had "stood for a thousand years". This would be rectified in the Legends Expanded Universe with the creation of the Ruusan Reformation. However, after April2014, the Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends, is no longer considered canonical. 2020's The Star Wars Book would further establish that the canon Old Republic was indeed founded more than 25,000 years prior to Episode IV.
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story introduced R2-BHD as Jon Vander's Astromech droid. The pair would survive the Battle of Scarif, however since Vander perished during the Battle of Yavin, it was unknown at the time if R2-BHD was with him. Fortunately, thanks to a LEGO set released in 2023, it was confirmed that R2-BHD participated and was destroyed in the battle.
• In Episode V, Ben Kenobi's assertion that Luke was the last hope could either mean that he was unaware of Luke's and Leia's relation, or that he did not believe Leia could take Luke's place. In Episode III, he was present when Padmé Amidala gave birth to Luke and Leia, and even helped arrange for Bail Organa to adopt Leia.
• In Episode V, Obi-Wan states that JediGrand MasterYoda taught him to be a Jedi. In Episode I, it was retconned that he was taught by Jedi MasterQui-Gon Jinn.
• In Episode VI, Obi-Wan states that he decided to train Anakin to become a Jedi. This would later be reverted in Episode I, where he initially doesn't want to, but does so to fulfill the dying wish of his master, Qui-Gon Jinn
• In Episode VI, Leia tells Luke that she vaguely remembers how her mother looked, though in Episode III, Padmé Amidala dies soon after giving birth to them. There has been some debate whether Leia was talking about Breha Organa, her foster mother (despite Luke specifically asked her about "real mother"), though StarWars.com stated that Leia was indeed remembering Padmé, so it is now unclear if this is canonical or not. It should be noted that when illustrator Iain McCaig was assigned to draw concept art for Breha, he gave Breha all of Amidala's traits in an attempt to explain how Leia remembered her mother's smile.
• Poe Dameron and Rey met for the first time in Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization, but then it was retconned that their first meeting was in Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi.
• Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker both stated in Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi that Kylo had intentionally destroyed the Jedi Temple of Luke Skywalker and taken several students with him, while slaughtering the remaining students. However, The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 shows that Ben destroyed the Temple by accident and no students left to join him, only to pursue him when he fled.
• In the novelizations of Episode VII and Episode VIII, as well as the visual dictionary for Episode VIII, Snoke is established to be a dark side user with no connections to the Sith, who had previously seen the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire. Episode IX instead states that Darth Sidious had created Snoke and had been directly responsible for the events that resulted in the rise of the First Order and the corruption of Ben Solo to the dark side.

The Clone Wars made many retcons to established continuity when it debuted.

• In the 2005Revenge of the Sith novelization, Anakin says that he had only ever read about MagnaGuards before fighting them onboard the Invisible Hand. However, the season one episode "Duel of the Droids" has him fighting MagnaGuards to rescue R2-D2.
• Previous EU media had depicted Ryloth as being a tidally-locked planet with one side permanently facing its sun. When Ryloth appeared on The Clone Wars, however, it was as a planet with a normal day/night cycle and a consequently less harsh environment.
• Clone trooperEcho's designation number was originally given in "Clone Cadets" as CT-21-0408: although not spoken aloud, all of the members of Domino Squad had their numbers written on their training armour. Both the unfinished and final versions of the later episode "The Bad Batch" changed Echo's number to CT-1409.
• The tie-in graphic novel Shipyards of Doom involves a Republic strike team which includes Anakin Skywalker carbon-freezing themselves as an infiltration tactic. Third-season episode "The Citadel" involves the same tactic, but has Anakin claiming never to have undergone the procedure .
• "Citadel Rescue" retconned a part of the novel Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight by killing off Even Piell, who had first been depicted as dying in that novel, later in the timeline.
• Season four episodes "Kidnapped," "Slaves of the Republic" and "Escape from Kadavo" were adapted from the first story arc of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars monthly comic series. However, in the course of the adaptation, a large number of elements were changed:
• "An Old Friend": In her entry on the original Databank, Teckla Minnau was said to have survived the Clone Wars, going on to marry a writer while serving as a handmaiden to Queen Kylantha. This episode retconned that by killing her off during the events on Scipio.
• "The Lost One": Republic 61, the events of which were dated to 22 BBY by The Essential Reader's Companion, depicted former Supreme ChancellorFinis Valorum's death in a terrorist attack. This episode, which was dated to 20 BBY in the the original continuity, depicted Valorum alive and well.
• The "Bad Batch" arc which opened the series' revived seventh season was initially released on StarWars.com as a series of unfinished story reels. The final versions of the four episodes featured multiple changes:
• The four-part grand finale of The Clone Wars ("Old Friends Not Forgotten," "The Phantom Apprentice," "Shattered," "Victory and Death"), released in 2020, retcons almost all of the details about the Siege of Mandalore and Ahsoka Tano and Rex's survival of and escape from Order 66 given in the 2016 novel Ahsoka.

Series premiere "Aftermath" directly contradicts events depicted in the Star Wars: Kanan comic series regarding the Battle of Kaller and how Depa Billaba and Caleb Dume experienced Order 66.

• In the comic, CC-10/994 "Grey" is a Clone Commander with red armor markings and equipment including a pauldron over his right shoulder and a vibrosword on a bandolier. "Aftermath" depicts him as a Clone Captain with green markings, no sword, and a pauldron over his left shoulder.
• Billaba's lightsaber goes from green in the comic to blue in the episode, following up on the reference book Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection. The blue color originated from concept art created for Star Wars: The Clone Wars prior to the series' initial cancellation.
• In Kanan, Commander Grey and Captain Styles attack Billaba and Dume at a campground at night on Kaller after the Separatists have surrendered Kaller to the Republic. Grey responds to the order with "Yes, my Lord." Billaba and Dume fight together until Billaba orders Dume to run while she is shot down. Afterwards, he is hunted in the forest by Rostu Squad. "Aftermath" has Dume separated from Billaba during the daytime in the immediate aftermath of a battle as he follows Clone Force 99. At this point, Captain Grey receives Order 66 and, saying nothing in response, attacks Billaba with his men. Dume runs back towards his Master, but, after being told to run, escapes into the forest and is followed by Clone SergeantHunter and Crosshair. The latter attacks Dume, while Hunter attempts to help him. Dume eventually escapes by leaping over a small canyon.
• Kanan has Dume use his Jedi cloak to conceal his identity while evading clone forces. "Aftermath" shows him losing it in the woods while being followed by members of the Bad Batch.

• In one 1978 series of strips that was later titled The Constancia Affair, Luke Skywalker's parents were called "Master and Mistress Tan Skywalker." At the time, the Expanded Universe was in its early stages, and nobody knew what the name of Luke's father was going to be, save that the two probably shared the surname Skywalker. The given name "Anakin" was only revealed in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, five years after the release of The Constantia Affair. The name "Tan" was later retconned into a title-rank that was bestowed to exceptionally skilled pilots.
• Since Episode IV, the Republic was known to have fought the Clone Wars, and the Expanded Universe (EU) added several other conflicts, such as the Great Sith War; but in Episode II, Sio Bibble stated that "there hasn't been a full-scale war since the formation of the Republic." The above-mentioned Ruusan Reformation also handled this discrepancy.
• In the novelization of Episode VI, it's said that Darth Vader fell into a pool of lava. In Episode III, Anakin doesn't actually touch the lava, but the fumes were hot enough to set fire on his clothes. However, more than a retcon, this idea was most likely altered in order to make Anakin's survival more plausible. In addition, it's revealed that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Owen Lars were brothers, though in Episode II it's shown that they were unrelated (coincidentally, in real-world, Nash Edgerton, Joel Edgerton's (young Owen Lars) brother, doubled Ewan McGregor (young Obi-Wan) and that Palpatine was loved by the Coruscanti (which was further supported by the sourcebook Coruscant and the Core Worlds and its statement that the populace specifically viewed Palpatine as a virtual demigod), while in the Special Edition of the film, it's shown that Coruscant celebrated Palpatine's death, even bringing down a statue of his.
• The Imperial capital was originally referred to by writers as "Imperial Center"; when Timothy Zahn introduced the name of Coruscant, the name was retconned to be what the Empire designated Coruscant.
• Likewise, the capital city of Coruscant was originally called Imperial City; when Coruscant was determined to be an ecumenopolis, was retconned to be the designation of that part of the city as opposed to the planetwide city as a whole (which was renamed Galactic City).
• The Coruscant Uprising, and the brutality with which the Empire suppressed it, retcons the post-Endor celebrations on Coruscant seen in the special edition of Return of the Jedi with the fact that the planet would not be freed from Imperial rule for another two years.
• The name of the Republic's leader was for many years simply the President of the Senate; when the prequels revealed the title to be the Supreme Chancellor, the term "President of the Senate" was retconned to be one of the Chancellor's several official titles (some say that this was the title before the Reformation).
• In the Jedi Prince series, Kadann and the others were trying to steal power away from Ysanne Isard. Isard is never mentioned in the series—in fact, it's frequently implied there is no Imperial leader other than Trioculus—but this retcon was created to fit the series into the established timeline.
• The EU established that Raith Sienar gave Tarkin the designs for the Death Star, and that Bevel Lemelisk developed the superlaser; after Episode II revealed that the Geonosians gave the plans to Tyranus/Sidious, it was retconned that the Geonosians developed the details based on outlines given to them by Sienar and Lemelisk. Indeed, the history of the Death Star has become so convoluted that a novel was created on this topic. The novel was, in effect, one large retcon.
• The show Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO showed C-3PO and R2-D2 having several adventures in the time between the rise of the Empire and Episode IV; after the release of Episode III showed them to be in the employ of the same people they are with in Episode IV, it has been retconned that the two droids somehow were separated from their owners because of Corla Metonae after Episode III, then returned to them sometime before Episode IV.
• While A-wings are not supposed to exist before the Battle of Yavin, they appear in the Droids series, which happens between the two trilogies. The identical R-22 Spearhead was then "invented" as a predecessor of the A-wing, in order to explain the appearance of such ships in the Droids era.
• The title Darth was supposed to be invented in the period of the New Sith Wars until the game Knights of the Old Republic introduced Darth Revan and Darth Malak, who lived 2,000 years before the beginning of the aforementioned period. It is generally assumed that the title was forgotten sometime between, so the tradition was lost. The first Sith Lord to use the title Darth in the New Sith Wars era also constantly shifted into the past: first it was thought to be Darth Bane, then Darth Rivan, and later Darth Ruin.
• Timothy Zahn, in The Thrawn Trilogy, cast the Clone Masters as the opponents of the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars, as several authors of the '90s considered that the cloners and their clones were the "villains." However, after Attack of the Clones revealed the clones were on the Republic's side, the Clone Masters were retconned into being renegades who did not attack until after the formation of the Empire.
• The Confederacy of Independent Systems' use of Morgukai clones during the Siege of Saleucami, shown in the Star Wars: Republicstoryline of the same name, and a young Gilad Pellaeon's presence among the Republic forces, explains Pellaeon's claim in Heir to the Empire (part one of the aforementioned Thrawn trilogy) to have battled unstable clones during the Clone Wars many years before.
• The BBY system used in many sources to represent dates in the Star Wars timeline is itself a retcon. It originated as an out-of-universe dating system and, after becoming popular, was retconned into an in-universe system used by the New Republic, et al.
• According to their first back-story written in The Star Wars Sourcebook, the Mon Calamari and the Quarren had their first contact with offworlders when the Galactic Empire discovered their world. This generated continuity problems when Quarren appeared as background aliens in Episode I, and when the Mon Calamari PadawanBant Eerin appeared in the Jedi Apprentice series. The idea that the Mon Calamari's conflict with the Empire was their first experience with offworlders was retconned away when they appeared as loyal members of the Galactic Republic in Star Wars: Clone Wars. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds explained these previous references as Imperial propaganda.
• Little Kessel was created for The Essential Atlas to confirm that the lush, idyllic "Kessel" seen in The Second Kessel Run and the "regular" Kessel—a desolate, misshapen world unpleasant enough to serve as an in-universe synonym for Hell—are not the same planet.
• Jaster Mereel was originally supposed to be the real name of Boba Fett. However, when Episode II stated that Boba was a clone of his "father" Jango Fett, Jaster Mereel was retconned into a separate character, Jango's mentor and predecessor as Mandalore. It was stated that Boba took the alias in honor of the real Jaster. It was also stated that there were many rumors concerning Boba Fett's identity due to the fact that most people in the galaxy knew very little about him, with Fett having deliberately spread some of them to throw others off his actual background.
• As revealed in the Marvel Star Wars comics series, Boba Fett was believed to have served with a group of supercommandos from the planet Mandalore towards the end of the Clone Wars. According to reports, only three Mandalorians survived: Boba Fett, Tobbi Dala, and Fenn Shysa. However, it was later retconned that this "Boba Fett" was not Boba Fett at all, but a rogue ARC trooper named Spar who had become obsessed with returning the Mandalorians to their former glory.
• The rumor mentioned in The History of the Mandalorians that the renegade clone Spar was in fact Jango Fett's son rationalizes Fenn Shysa's claim that, during the Clone Wars, he and the Mandalorian Protectors had served under Boba Fett - who was later shown to have been only 13 at the end of the conflict.
• Stormtroopers during the Galactic Civil War were rarely indicated to be clones before the prequel films, except in the article Soldiers of the Empire!. Additionally, multiple Expanded Universe sources mentioned normal human stormtroopers (such as Davin Felth and Kyle Katarn) and showed the existence of Imperial academies (such as Carida) which trained normal humans as stormtroopers. Large numbers of clones were later retconned into the stormtrooper ranks. (See also Star Wars: Battlefront II, which established that the 501st Legion was the only stormtrooper unit still made up of Jango clones.)
• The Phase Zero dark troopers—aging and wounded Clone Wars veterans essentially turned into cyborgs—explain how, while the Empire's first use of them did not occur until after the Battle of Yavin, the Battlefront games include "Dark troopers" in the Imperial arsenal as early as 18 BBY.
• The novel I, Jedi places Corran Horn at the Jedi Praxeum during the events of The Jedi Academy Trilogy, and also fine-tunes some of the events of the trilogy to fit later canon.
• In the Return of the Jedi novelization, Obi-Wan Kenobi said that Owen Lars was his brother, and there is a reference to Obi-Wan's brother Owen in Jedi Apprentice: The Hidden Past. With Attack of the Clones depicting Lars as a completely different character, Owen Kenobi became a retcon.
• The Dark JediJerec wears a blindfold, originally because his eyes were destroyed by the dark side of the Force, not because he was a member of a species that lacked eyes. The New Essential Guide to Characters referred to Jerec as a human and the fact that he once had eyes is mentioned in a voice-over in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. However, sources published more recently have retconned him as a member of the eyeless species Miraluka.
• Although the 2002 video gameStar Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast refers to its Imperial antagonists as the "Imperial Remnant," they were later retconned into in fact being representatives of the Empire Reborn, an Imperial splinter faction first introduced in the 1994 novel The Crystal Star.
• The character of Quinlan Vos was originally written by George Lucas to appear in Episode III as being one of the many Jedi who were killed during Order 66. Star Wars: Republic writers inserted the scene in the film's comic book adaptation in spite of their plans to do more stories with Vos. However, when they became aware that Lucas never filmed Vos' death scene, they retconned Vos' death to just a wound, bringing him back, albeit injured, in Republic 82.