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When Disney took over Lucasfilm, and announced the creation of new movies, current Extended Universe works were deemed to be non-canon.

Interestingly though, there seem to be a number of plot points within The Force Awakens that seem very similar to events that took place in the EU (renamed "Legends" by Disney).

  1. The son of Han Solo and Leia Organa trains as a Jedi with Luke but turns to the dark side. (Jacen Solo in EU).

  2. The name 'Ben' is used for a descendent of Anakin Skywalker (in EU this was actually Luke's son, not Han/Leia's).

  3. Luke's Lightsaber that he inherited from Anakin turns up again despite seemingly being lost at Bespin (in EU Luke encounters a clone of himself, cloned the hand he lost fighting Vader and wielding his lightsaber. Luke later gifts this to Mara Jade).

  4. A stormtrooper becomes disillusioned and runs away after being ordered to kill civilians (In the EU novel Allegiance four stormtroopers run away and become vigilantes for the same reason).

There are quite possibly other examples.

Additionally there is evidence that George Lucas was fully aware of at least one of these plot points.

George Lucas actually got directly involved the Jacen Solo storyline: 'it had been the creative team's intent to kill Jacen Solo in Anakin's place and have Anakin become the major hero. This was abandoned when Star Wars creator George Lucas vetoed the idea of Anakin Solo becoming the dominant figure, and the brothers' dramatic roles were swapped. Jacen Solo became the central figure of the arc; according to editor Sue Rostoni, "in many ways, the NJO is really his series."' - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Caedus

Is there any evidence that the writers were paying homage to the EU here? They certainly were happy to pay homage a LOT to A New Hope! Or is this all just coincedental. The EU is so massive that pretty much anything that could reasonably happen has happened. However, some of the plot points are pretty well known, so can we reasonably assume that somebody being paid a lot of money to work in the Star Wars universe may have been aware of these things.

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  • If anyone can put properly formatted list items within a spoiler tag please go ahead! I spent as long as I did writing the question trying to do so :)
    – razethestray
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:43
  • Did the best I could. Quasi-answering your question, it's impossible the writers weren't aware of the EU, though whether the parallels were intentional is harder to say
    – Jason Baker
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:45
  • I don't know about Legends, but they did reference The Clone Wars with some of Kanata's flags.
    – Rogue Jedi
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:46
  • JJ and the writing team are well aware of the Legends EU. They did not want to be limited by it when telling new stories. That is one of several motivations for having TFA take place 30 years after RotJ, in a timeframe beyond the current EU that tells Luke/Leia/Han's stories.
    – Remy Lebeau
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:47
  • @RogueJedi: The Clone Wars is part of official Disney canon, and thus its events exist in TFA's timeline.
    – Remy Lebeau
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 0:47

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  1. It is obvious that they were aware, since the "creators" included Leland Chee (Keeper of the Holocron database of canon facts), Pablo Hidalgo, Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of Lucasfilm's Story Group (Disney name for it) and higher-up brass who were also previously responsible for the canon during Lucas era.

  2. Moreover, during Disney Canon Wars, they explicitly said in the speech anouncing the creation of Disney Empire:

    Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe.

    This was further confirmed by Jennifer Heddle (LucasFilm's senior editor) on Twitter:

    @Hoopserwan It's all non-canon, but it all exists as a resource that could be used down the line. 2:17 PM - 25 Apr 2014

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