When Disney bought Lucasfilm, the company threw almost every piece of Star Wars lore away. In a flash, literally decades of stories from its expanded universe were nixed from canon — cleaning the slate in order to give director J. J. Abrams freedom to tell a new tale starting moments after Return of the Jedi ended.

But those missing pieces are very quickly being filled by a new Star Wars universe that's equal parts expansive and expensive, costing both time and money to learn everything. The story of Star Wars, for the kind of fan that wants to know everything, is much bigger than the movies, spanning several novels, comic book series, video games, and TV shows.

It's almost impossible to keep track of everything, and for the casual Star Wars fan, none of this is likely necessary to know before going into The Force Awakens.