Star Wars author John Jackson Miller reveals how he learned Disney was jettisoning some of the Expanded Universe books as canon, while he was writing one of the books

When John Jackson Miller began writing Star Wars: A New Dawn, he had no hint at how historical the novel would be. Initially it was supposed to be the latest Star Wars tie-in novel, serving as a lead-in to the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. Little did Miller realize that his novel would be launching a new canon for Star Wars.

John Jackson Miller is a prolific science-fiction writer. His Star Wars books, including New Dawn and the critically acclaimed Kenobi, have regularly topped the best-sellers list.

Speaking to Popverse at a press session during Dragon Con 2023, Miller recalled how New Dawn’s canon status changed as he was writing it. “I was two-thirds of the way working on that novel, and I noticed that we were doing something unusual with it. Because it was a prequel to the Rebels television series, I was being overseen by people that were aware of the TV show. So, I had Dave Filoni, Greg Wiseman, and Simon Kinberg all looking at the outlines and they suggested possible things I could write about where I wouldn't collide with things.”