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What Counts as Franchise Canon? Star Wars, Halloween, Terminator and the DCU

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Franchise canon is the set of stories a rights holder treats as having actually happened, and in film it is decided by the studio and its filmmakers, not by fans or release order. Star Wars, Halloween and Terminator all redrew their canon in public, and DC Studios is doing it now, which makes them the clearest examples of how a canon gets set and how to check one.

The short version: Lucasfilm moved decades of Star Wars books, comics and games to a Legends label in 2014. Halloween (2018) skipped every sequel to follow on from the 1978 original, and Terminator: Dark Fate set aside everything after Terminator 2. James Gunn has described two older DC projects as light canon: they count where the new films say they do. In every case the answer came from a statement by the people who own or make the films.

How franchise canon gets decided

A franchise usually ends up with more than one kind of story: the films, then licensed spin-offs in other media, then sequels made decades later by new creative teams. Canon becomes a question when those pieces contradict each other, and there are three common ways studios settle it.

The first is a formal declaration, which is what Lucasfilm did. The second is the timeline reset, where a new sequel picks one earlier film to follow and quietly leaves the others out; Halloween and Terminator both did this. The third is a working rule rather than a list, the approach Gunn has described for DC. The table sums up where each franchise landed.

Franchise What the current canon keeps Who drew the line
Star Wars The six Lucas episodes, The Clone Wars, everything since; older books, comics and games became Legends Lucasfilm statement, April 25, 2014
Halloween (2018 timeline) The 1978 film, then Halloween (2018), Kills and Ends Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, with Blumhouse
Terminator (Dark Fate timeline) The Terminator, Terminator 2, then Dark Fate James Cameron and Tim Miller
DC Studios (DCU) New DCU films and shows; older DC projects count where the new ones mention them James Gunn

Star Wars: the Expanded Universe becomes Legends

By 2014, for over 35 years, Star Wars stories had spilled into what Lucasfilm called the Expanded Universe, or EU: comics, novels, videogames and more. The Hollywood Reporter defined it at the time as Star Wars material not produced directly by Lucasfilm. Much of it took place after Return of the Jedi, so fans wanted to know whether the new trilogy would follow it.

Lucasfilm answered on StarWars.com, in a statement THR dated April 25, 2014. It said George Lucas “was not beholden to the EU” and had set his own films as the canon, meaning the six episodes plus the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which it called “the immovable objects of Star Wars history.” Episodes VII to IX would not tell the post-Return of the Jedi story from the books, and older EU stories would stay in print “under the new Legends banner.” The first new canon on screen would be Star Wars Rebels. Kathleen Kennedy also set up a story group to keep every film, show, book and game consistent, the first time the company had formed one.

Legends material was not thrown away. The same statement said creators keep full access to it, and pointed to Rebels reusing the Inquisitor, Sienar Fleet Systems and the Empire’s security bureau, ideas that began in roleplaying games published in the 1980s. If you are trying to work out which films to watch, our Star Wars viewing order guide lists every theatrical release in story and release order.

Halloween: one original, several timelines

Halloween has more branches than either of the other film series here. The Numbers’ franchise listing runs from the 1978 original through Halloween II in 1981, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch in 1982, Halloween 4 in 1988, Halloween: H2O in 1998 and Halloween: Resurrection in 2002, then another film titled Halloween in 2007 and Halloween 2 in 2009, and finally Halloween in 2018, Halloween Kills in 2021 and Halloween Ends in 2022.

The 2018 film settled its canon in two public steps. Early on, Danny McBride, who wrote it with director David Gordon Green, said the plan was to focus “mainly in the first two movies,” as /Film reported. By the time it was made, Blumhouse was describing the film as a direct sequel to the 1978 original “and not a reboot,” set forty years later, and McBride explained the change: “This picks up after the first one.” He gave the reason too. The series, he said, had become “a little bit of like choose your own adventure,” and the team found it easier “to go back to the source and continue from there.”

That choice dropped the 1981 sequel along with the rest, including its story of the same night, which /Film recalled as unfolding in the hours after the first film ended while Laurie Strode was treated in a local hospital. McBride added that the new film still pays “homage and respect to every Halloween that has been out there,” so references to the other films are nods, not continuity. John Carpenter, who created the series, signed on as an executive producer and composer after Green and McBride won him over with their story idea. Our Halloween viewing order guide maps out each timeline.

Terminator: everything after Judgment Day becomes a bad dream

Terminator went through three sequels after Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991): Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, Terminator Salvation in 2009 and Terminator Genisys in 2015, per The Numbers. When James Cameron came back as producer for what became Terminator: Dark Fate, released in 2019 with Tim Miller directing, he told The Hollywood Reporter the new story would continue from the first two films, as The Credits, the Motion Picture Association’s publication, relayed it.

His wording has become shorthand for this kind of reset: “we’re pretending the other films were a bad dream. Or an alternate timeline, which is permissible in our multi-verse.” Cameron credited Miller as the driving force, saying he himself had come in “pretty agnostic” about where to take the story. The alternate-timeline line matters: it leaves the three middle films intact as stories while removing them from the main line. The theatrical and extended versions of the film everything now follows are compared in our piece on Terminator 2’s extra scenes.

The DCU’s light-canon rule

DC Studios faced the problem in reverse. Gunn, who co-runs the studio, had already worked on The Suicide Squad and the first season of Peacemaker under the old DC film universe, the now-defunct DCEU, and the new DCU was already referencing both. Asked by The Hollywood Reporter in December 2024 whether to treat them as prologues, he said: “Yeah, they’re light canon.” Peacemaker, he said, is “pretty straightforward” except for the Justice League’s appearance at the end, adding that those characters “don’t exist yet.”

Then he gave the rule: “If we mention [something from the past] in one of the new DCU shows [and movies], then it happened.” Under that test, nothing from the older films is canon by default; a past event becomes canon only when a new release references it. It is the most flexible approach of the three, and the easiest for a studio to adjust as it goes.

How to check a canon claim yourself

Every settled answer in this piece came from a statement on the record: a studio announcement, or a producer or director speaking to a named outlet. That gives a practical test. Look for the rights holder’s own site or a trade interview with the filmmakers, note the date, and check whether a later film has contradicted it. Fan wikis and timeline videos are useful maps, but they are summaries of those statements, not the source. Release order is not a guide either: Halloween (2018) follows a film from 1978 and skips the ones in between.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Star Wars Expanded Universe still canon?

No. In a statement dated April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm set the six Lucas-era films and The Clone Wars as canon and moved the older Expanded Universe books, comics and games to the Legends label, while keeping them available for new creators to draw on.

Which Halloween movies are canon to Halloween (2018)?

Only the 1978 original. Danny McBride said the film picks up after the first one, and Blumhouse called it a direct sequel to the 1978 Halloween. Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022) continue that timeline.

Does Terminator: Dark Fate ignore Terminator 3?

Yes. James Cameron said the story continues from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 and that the other films would be treated as a bad dream or an alternate timeline. That sets aside Terminator 3, Salvation and Genisys.

Are The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker canon in the DCU?

James Gunn called them light canon in December 2024. His rule is that anything from the past counts if one of the new DCU shows or movies mentions it.

Who decides what is canon in a franchise?

The rights holder and the filmmakers it hires. Lucasfilm, Blumhouse with the Halloween team, James Cameron for Terminator and DC Studios all set their canon through public statements.

Sources

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