Hey everyone! Dash Rendar is now canon again!
If some of you are wondering who that is, don’t feel bad.
Even dedicated Star Wars fans may not immediately remember who Dash is. Allow us to remind you: he’s an Expanded Universe character, from the early days of the Star Wars revival in the 1990s.
In 1996, Lucasfilm introduced Shadows of the Empire, a multi-platform Star Wars adventure that included a novel, video game, comics, and a toy line. Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, it included the characters Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca, as well as new characters like Prince Xizor.
With Han Solo still frozen in carbonite, however, they needed someone to fill the roguish-smuggler role – and Dash Rendar was born.
Kenner, who had seen success with the revival of their Star Wars action figure line, went all out for Shadows of the Empire, creating a line of figures, ships, and other merchandise. Dash Rendar not only got his own action figure, his ship, the Outrider, hit toy shelves alongside Boba Fett’s Slave 1, which was also released in the line.
Shadows was a modest success for Lucasfilm. With the release of the Special Editions of the Original Trilogy in 1997, Shadows was quickly pushed aside by a CGI Jabba and newly0enhanced visual effects. The video game remains the most popular part of the Shadows campaign.
Here’s a gameplay video from the classic Nintendo 64 game, including the epic Hoth stage that began the game.
Like most Expanded Universe Star Wars stories and characters, Shadows of the Empire was designated to the “Legends” category after Disney bought Lucasfilm, meaning it was no longer considered “canon” with the films. Dash faded into Star Wars obscurity as a cheap Han Solo-type ripoff.
That all changed this summer, when author Jason Fry included Dash (at least in reference) in his book “Solo: A Star Wars Story – Tales from Vandor.”
Fry even joked on his Twitter account about including Dash in the book.
Ha. Yes, I am to blame. But hey, Dash as diet Coke to Han’s real thing is the joke in Tales of Vandor too…. https://t.co/vyUC37fS6M— Jason Fry (@jasoncfry) September 19, 2018
Here’s a handy-dandy video from Star Wars Explained that covers Dash Rendar a bit more.
While other examples of Extended Universe characters going canon have been great (Hello, Grand Admiral Thrawn), adding Dash Rendar isn’t nearly as consequential to the overall Star Wars lore.
Now, bring on Jaxxon the Rabbit, and we’re all in, Lucasfilm!
If you want to check out the book for yourself, you can order it from Amazon by clicking below.
Post your thoughts in the comments section below!