Fanon

This article is about unofficial fiction. You may be looking for Sean Fannon.

"I've always thought that tie in novels were professionally produced fanfic—and if they're not, there's something wrong."

―Karen Miller^[1]

The term fanon refers to fan-made fiction. Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and often abbreviated fanfic) is an unlicensed story written by a fan that takes place in an established fictional universe, such as Star Wars.^[2] Such fiction is unrecognized by Lucasfilm and is therefore non-canon.

The term is a portmanteau of fan and canon.

Fanon made official

Expanded Universe authors occasionally adopted fanon. One instance of this was the 501st Legion, a clone trooper unit that was named after a real charity organization. The fanon—or some elements of it, like the name in this case—thereby became part of Legends continuity.^[3]

The What's The Story? competition invited members of the Hyperspace fan club to submit fan-written backstories of selected characters, the best of which were accepted as their official backstories.^[4]

On September 3, 2020, user gomjabbar on the blog website Tumblr made a post that reads "every time a new Star War movie or show is announced all the fans are like 'OMG Glup Shitto is back 😭😭😭'."^[5] After this post, the term "Glup Shitto" began to go viral, and became synonymous in circles of the Star Wars fandom with obscure characters that have names perceived by some as strange.^[6] Some in the fandom have also taken to referring to some characters fitting this criteria as "their" Glup Shittos, placing an emphasis on their personal endearment or enjoyment of those characters.^[7] On August 2, 2022, Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin acknowledged the Glup Shitto meme, stating that he had used the term in an official note.^[8]