Star Wars has seen a lot of change since Disney took over the franchise, for better and worse. But one thing the House of Mouse’s takeover doesn’t deserve credit or blame for is the introduction of magic to a galaxy far, far away.
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Magic was always part of the Star Wars universe, long before it cropped up in the likes of Disney+ series Ahsoka. Okay, maybe “always” is a stretch – although there’s no denying that mysticism was part of the equation right from the jump. After all, what is the Force, if not a kind of magic? Owen Lars even brands Force user Obi-Wan Kenobi an “old wizard” in the first-ever Star Wars movie, A New Hope. And if your definition of magic demands spells and potions, the saga’s wider lore added both (and more) into the mix soon after.
Yes, it’s a straight-up fact that Star Wars creator George Lucas made room for magic – the really-for-real kind – in his epic space opera long before Disney entered the picture.
When Did Magic First Appear in Star Wars Canon?
Setting aside anything explicitly Force-related, magic first showed up in Star Wars in the mid-80s. Lucas didn’t sell Lucasfilm (and by extension, Star Wars) to Disney until 2012, so he was still very much at the helm. Indeed, he’s credited for the story of TV movies Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: Battle for Endor – which both include non-Force-related supernatural phenomena.
Battle of Endor leaned especially hard into Star Wars‘ fantasy side, featuring an out-and-out witch, Charal, who could shapeshift, raise the dead, and do all sorts of other occult stuff. Sure, later Star Wars canon retconned Charal as a Force-wielding Nightsister, but back when Lucas made her up, she was nothing of the sort. The Ewoks cartoon series boasted plenty of sorcery, as well.
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Magic continued to rear its head elsewhere in the Star Wars canon throughout the following decade. Several ’90s books and comic books – including Dark Horse Comics’ various Tales of the Jedi titles – featured Sith magic that was distinctly separate from Force powers.
Admittedly, Lucas didn’t directly author any of this stuff. Heck, he probably didn’t even personally review most of it. But crucially neither he nor anyone else at Lucasfilm blocked these expansions to Star Wars lore (something the company did occasionally do). As such, it’s easy to read this as Lucas’ tacit approval of these stories.
Right up until the prequel trilogy kicked off in 1999, George Lucas was pro-magic.
Clone Wars Is George Lucas’ Final Word on Star Wars Magic
Lucas’ stance didn’t change much after the Star Wars prequels dropped, either. While he didn’t include any magic in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace or its follow-ups, he later gave Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ supervising director Dave Filoni the thumbs up to cram that show full of the stuff.
Clone Wars Season 3 in particular is full of the Nightsisters’ “magick.” True, this wasn’t magic in the same sense as what’s in the Ewoks flicks; it’s closer to Tales of the Jedi‘s Dark Side adjacent spellcasting. Even so, Nightsister magic in the Clone Wars relied on incantations and potions, and with its green mist and transfigurative properties, it wasn’t just the Force by another name.
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Lucas and Filoni brought revisited magic later in Clone Wars‘ original run too. In Season 6’s finale, we see a form of Dark Side-infused alchemy used by Darth Sidious and Count Dooku. Again, this had little to do with ethereal energy fields rooted in sci-fi principles, and everything to do with sorcery.
Dooku even donates some of his blood to the arcane ritual he and Sidious perform. Sith Lords or not, the pair are clearly performing magic – well before Disney gobbled up Star Wars. (It’s worth noting that while Season 6 aired after Lucas sold Lucasfilm, it was in development before then).
Magic is Here to Stay in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
So, is it any wonder that Star Wars has doubled down on magic in the years since Lucas’ 2012 exit?
After all, even discounting the wealth of stories Lucasfilm de-canonized post-Disney, the remaining canon still skews pro-magic. Plus, Filoni stuck around after Lucas left, so why wouldn’t he continue ramping up Star Wars‘ magic lore in the likes of Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka? He’d spent at least half a decade doing just that at Lucas’ side, anyway.
Of course, not everyone agrees with this approach or enjoys the magical aspect of the mythos. But that’s no different from any other aspect of the franchise. Either way, there’s no denying that magic was (almost) always part of the Star Wars universe – and it always will be, too.
The Ewoks movies, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Ahsoka are currently streaming on Disney+, as part of the platform’s Star Wars collection.
