Dark Empire: The Canon Edit - audio drama (released)

Hello there!

As the title indicates, this project seeks to bring the Dark Empire audio drama closer to the current Star Wars canon by crafting Dark Empires: The Canon Edit.

The aim of this fanedit is to align the events of Dark Empire with the narrative established by the live-action films and series. It’s a reimagining that bridges the gap between the Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy, setting the stage for Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

What to Expect?
• How the Emperor Returned: This fanedit ties Palpatine’s resurrection in The Rise of Skywalker to the groundwork laid in Dark Empire. His essence transfer power is highlighted, and various of his other clone bodies are shown, making his return more plausible and consistent with the sequels.

• New Force Powers: The story introduces advanced force abilities like the mentioned essence transfer, the Force storm, and Force projection, powers that resonate with what we see in the sequels.

• A Darker Luke Skywalker: This version delves into Luke’s struggles with darkness, echoing themes explored further in The Last Jedi.

• The Solo Legacy Reframed: One of the key changes is the removal of the Solo twins. Instead, the unborn child of Han and Leia is recontextualized as Ben Solo, aligning with the canon storyline.

This fanedit reimagines Dark Empire as a piece of the Star Wars cinematic universe, respecting the original work while ensuring it fits snugly into the galaxy far, far away.

It is a “labor of love” for fans who want to see the EU’s greatest stories find their place in the current cinematic canon.

The complete list of cuts and additions:

• Chapter 1
-I added “A long time ago…” (I borrowed it from Everest Production’s fan made LoT audio drama, the line was read by a voice actor who was imitating Palpatine’s voice, which I think fits well with this particular story);
-I trimmed the opening crawl (to avoid any mention of the Solo twins).

• Chapter 2
-I trimmed the dialogue between Luke and Leia (removed the mention of the twins and the future generation of the Jedi);
-the last scene was removed (as I felt it was too much out of character for Han to decline helping Lando).

• Chapter 3:
-I removed the entire first scene (as it had too many mentions of the twins, and, it was also a straight followup to the scene from chapter two I had removed);
-removed one mention of “the children” from another scene.

• Chapter 4:
No editing/changes needed, I left it as it was.

• Chapter 5:
I trimmed one dialogue, removing the mention of Mako being the one who had introduced Han to the smuggling business (as it contradicts Han’s origins presented in “Solo”).

• Chapter 6:
I cut the cringy dialogue of Luke and the Emperor from the first scene.

• Chapter 7:
Removed the mention of the Solo twins.

• Chapter 8:
No editing/changes needed, I left it as it was.

• Chapter 9:
-I removed the mention of the Solo twins in the opening scene;
-I decided to keep the line “you will train all my children” as it can be interpreted in a more general way (like in a “one day, if I have more children, you will train all of them” sense);
-I had to remove the last scene (too many mentions of the Solo twins and the “third child”);

I also added two scenes (trimmed and blended together) from “Empire’s End” #1, using them as an open-ending epilogue of the story. The scene foreshadows the Emperor’s return in Episode IX.
It provides an explanation of why Palpatine disappeared and stayed in the shadow during the next twenty years, setting up the events of TROS.
As he explains, Luke destroyed all his best clones, therefore he was forced to take one that was genetically unstable and is now in decay. He also says he will  journey to his “place of power” which, in the context of the Sequel Trilogy, can be interpreted as Exegol.

May the Force be with you!

I think this could be really cool.

Sounds like a great idea, I’ll be looking forward to this.

So, recently I’ve went back to this idea (it’s been returning like a boomerang for a while) and I’ve actually listened to the audio drama this week. This time I even took some notes here and there, to know more else what and where to cut/trimm.

For sure, I’ll need to remove all the mentions of the Solo twins. Luckily, most of those lines (or sequences) can be easily cut.
The biggest challenge will be the last dialogue between Leia and Luke, as there’s music in the background so I cannot just cut one line. I’ll try to figure it out.
Although, I’m thinking about using the last scenes from “Dark Empire II”, maybe I can trim them seamlessly, removing the mention of Vima and the NR base destroyed.

I also plan to cut some unnecessary scenes/moments for better pacing (and because sometimes, some protagonists are a bit out of character for me).

I remember there’s one little dialogue which I have to trim, it’s about Han’s friend who introduced him to the smudging underworld - it would contradict too much the evens of “Solo”.

Definitely the biggest challenge for the moment is the opening crawl.
Since it mentions the twins and the Thrawn campaign, I cannot really use it. On the other hand, I’m not sure it can be skipped without affecting the story. And I’m not really tech savvy when it comes to creating some AI dialogues etc. But well, we’ll see.

So far, I finished the workprints of some of the chapters.

The biggest challenge right now is the last one. I thought I could use the ending of the “Dark Empire II”, but I cannot edit it as I’d like to.
The last scene of Dark Empire cannot be trimmed as I’d like to because of the music in the background. So I’m kinda stuck with it : /

The other challenge for me was chapter 1, as I had to somehow trim the opening crawl, but I think I managed to do it.

So far the change list is:

•Chapter 1:
-I added “A long time ago…”
-trimmed the opening crawl

•Chapter 2
-the dialogue between Luke and Leia was trimmed (removed the mention of the twins and future generation of the Jedi)
-the last scene was removed (when Han declines helping Lando, as I felt it was too much out of character)

• Chapter 3:
-remove the whole first scene (too many mentions of the twins and also it was a direct followup to the last scene of chapter #2 I had removed)
-removed one mention of “the children”

Double post, sorry 😦

Yesterday I went through chapters 4-6.

• Chapter 4
No editing/changes needed, I left it as it was.

• Chapter 5
I trimmed one dialogue, removing the mention of Mako being the one who had introduced Han to the smuggling business (as it contradicts Han’s origins presented in “Solo”)

• Chapter 6
I cut the weird/cringy dialogue of Luke and the Emperor from the first scene.

Also, little update for Chapter 1: I added the “A long time ago…” from Everest Production’s fan made audio drama (Labirynth of Evil). The line is read imitating Palpatine’s voice, which I think fits well in this story.

After the Xmas Holidays I’ll go through chapters 7-9.

Hello there!

Would anybody be interested in listening to the workprint of the first chapter?

Also, a little update for chapters 7 and 8:

• Chapter 7: I removed the mention of the Solo twins.
• Chapter 8: no editing/trimming was needed, so I left it as it was.

The first chapter is 21 min.

It would be great if somebody could “proof-read” the first five minutes at least.

So, I’ve finally finished the last chapter:

-I removed the mention of the Solo twins in the opening scene;
-I decided to keep the line “you will train all my children” as it can be interpreted in a more general way (like in a “one day, if I have more children, you will train all of them” sense);
-I had to remove the last scene (too many mentions of the Solo twins and the “third child”);

I also added two scenes (trimmed and blended together) from “Empire’s End” #1, using them as an open-ending epilogue of the story. The scene foreshadows the Emperor’s return in Episode IX.
It provides an explanation of why Palpatine disappeared and stayed in the shadow during the next twenty years, setting up the events of TROS.
As he explains, Luke destroyed all his best clones, therefore he was forced to take one that was genetically unstable and is now in decay. He also says he will journey to his “place of power” which, in the context of the Sequel Trilogy, can be interpreted as Exegol.

I’ve also updated the opening thread.
The project is now complete and if anybody is interested, they can PM me to get the link 😃

May the force be with you!

Guiguioh said:

I only had time to listen to the first 5-6 minutes but your editing is seamless. Good job on that. I had a good smile at the Luke/Lando pairing mention because it is something in canon in that pre sequel Era books too.

Thank you for the kind words!
Regarding Luke and Lando, I totally agree. Since in TROS Lando mentions their adventures, it’s nice to see this duo on a mission together. Especially that the movies never really deep-dived into their friendship.
Also, what makes it even cooler is that Billy Dee Williams reprised his role as Lando in Dark Empire.

Guiguioh said:

The intro place that story post Thrawn Era. I think it works well for now, maybe you will need to do more edits in the future after all the Mando era showns/movies are over.

Yes, for now it works fine. Let’s see how Mandoverse will handle the Thrawn’s campaign in the future 😉

Guiguioh said:

Also, this is clearly a way to make that story work with the on screen canon content, not with the rest. And it is perfectly fine like that, just wanted to mention for anyone wanting to know.

Yes, exactly ☺️ The aim of the fanedit was to make it fit in the Star Wars cinematic universe canon (movies + series).
The only canon novel I took into consideration was “Shadow of the Sith”, I tried to make sure the audio drama wouldn’t contradict the book. I think both stories set up pretty well the Sequel Trilogy.

Hope you enjoy the rest of it!