History Main / RestrictedExpandedUniverse

* With Creator/{{Disney}}'s takeover of Lucasfilm and the announcement of new films, all new Expanded Universe stories are [[http://www.starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page overseen by a committee]] to ensure full continuity with the established canon is maintained.

May be avoided if the original series is over. The newer ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' comics not only can change the status quo, but are written by the [[Creator/JossWhedon series creator]]. A similar thing is likely to happen to the ''Star Wars'' continuity, now that new films have been announced--indeed, the old Expanded Universe is now an AlternateContinuity known as ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', but its elements are available to authors to re-canonize.

** ''Manga/DragonBall Z'': The "Journey To Namek", "Return of Garlic Jr." and "Otherworld Tournament" arcs were not in the manga and had to reset the situation at the end.

* Alice Randall wrote ''The Wind Done Gone'' as an explicit refutation of the limitations imposed by Margaret Mitchell's estate on those wishing to write sequels to ''Gone with the Wind''.

** Trek novels have gone back and forth between Restricted and non-Restricted a couple of times. The novels of the '70s and early '80s tended to give authors a lot of freedom to interpret ''Star Trek'' in their own idiosyncratic ways, though the books rarely referenced or built on one another. By the later '80s, Pocket Books' Trek authors began referencing popular novels like Creator/DianeDuane's Romulan/Literature/{{Rihannsu}} books and Creator/JohnMFord's Klingon epic ''Literature/TheFinalReflection'', and authors who did multiple novels increasingly carried continuity arcs forward within them, so an overall book continuity gradually began to emerge. But once ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was on the air, Paramount began restricting the books and comics, forbidding them from referencing anything but the live-action canon, which killed continuity between books. Those rules began to relax in the late '90s, and by now, with all the shows off the air, the books have built up an elaborate, interconnected continuity. However, the new J. J. Abrams movie continuity operates under RestrictedExpandedUniverse rules -- so restricted, in fact, that only prequels to the movie have been allowed to be published so far.

* Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' franchise has been reported to have an IP-overseeing committee that dictates certain guidelines that outside studios working in {{Spin Off}}s of the series are obligated to follow in order to keep it consistent with the mainline platformers. In particular, the introduction of original characters is very restrictive nowadays, a turnaround from entries around the 00's and before, where such a practice was more prominent.

* Fanfic/TheBasaltCityChronicles, which is not only RestrictedExpandedUniverse for ''Webcomic/GeneCatlow'' (The author goes to the universe's creators for permission for virtually everything he adds), but is also that Verse's [[AllThereInTheManual Manual]].

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' comics did this. At one point, even [[CanonForeigner new characters]] couldn't be used because of fears that they would become {{Canon Immigrants}}s that required royalties.

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' comics did this. At one point even [[CanonForeigner new characters]] couldn't be used because of fears that they would become [[CanonImmigrant Canon Immigrants]] that required royalties.
* The ''ComicBook/SonicX'' comics weren't allowed to introduce characters from the games that weren't introduced in the show, nor were they allowed to make any real changes to the status quo.

* Writers for the old ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] (now ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''), besides following the regular continuity, had to abide to a certain set of rules established by Lucasfilm. Among those revealed to the fans are:
** The Big Trio (Han, Luke and Leia) cannot be killed.

* Due to concerns of ContinuityLockout, the TV portion of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has so far not been able to have any effect on the movies. While shows like ''Series/AgentCarter'', ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'', ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'' and ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'' are sufficiently distanced from the movies for it to not matter, ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' is bound by the rule that the Avengers cannot know that Coulson is still alive. This has led to a few cases where Coulson has to remind people who know the Avengers not to tell them about him, and in turn the movies have not acknowledged Coulson's survival even when he could or should logically appear - specifically, ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has [[spoiler:Comicbook/NickFury show up with a Helicarrier he had kept hidden]], and the following ''Agents'' episode established that Coulson was involved in setting it up, but the movie doesn't mention Coulson's involvement at all.

* Video games based on Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium have long faced similar restriction from two opposite directions, because the licenses to adapt original literature works and Creator/PeterJackson's [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings movies]] were sold to separate studios. On one side were the games unable to use any of the designs, lines or actors from the movies even when they were very well-known and liked (''The Fellowship of the Ring'', ''VideoGame/TheHobbit2003'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsWarOfTheRing'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline''). On the other side were the games unable to include anything at all that was not explicitly referenced on-screen in the movies, severely limiting available plotlines (''The Two Towers'', ''The Return of the King'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge'', ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth''). And of course nobody at all has the rights to ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'', placing events and characters exclusive to those books permanently off-limits.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', mainly due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers a confluence of legal issues]]. The game is set in the prime universe post-dating the Hobus supernova from ''Film/StarTrek2009'', but due to the fact that the license comes from CBS rather than Paramount they can only use story details, not visuals. CBS also has veto power over Cryptic's ideas, and they're also restricted in their use of TV-canon characters because, while the ''character'' belongs to CBS and is thus usable, the ''likeness'' belongs to the actors so Cryptic has to negotiate with them separately or use an OffModel (the latter of which they've mostly stopped doing). They also have to negotiate separately to use elements from other works in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse''(although they do often get permission).

* The ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' video games are rather [[ExcusePlot light on plot]], allowing the ExpandedUniverse to go hog-wild on it. The novels, comic books, films, etc. give characters new backstories and personality traits that were never hinted at in the games, fleshes out the origins of both the [[TheFederation UNSC]] and [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Covenant]] fully, adds in new weapons and vehicles, introduces and kills off many many characters on its own, and generally is... [[AdaptationExpansion better]], at least as far as plot goes. When Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries took over development duties from Creator/{{Bungie}}, the ExpandedUniverse became much more integrated with the games from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'' onward, especially regarding [[BigBad the Didact]]. In fact, the 343i-era expanded universe has even killed off characters introduced in the games.
* Zig-sagged with the ComicBookAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''; initially, the comic's writers tried to keep it in line with the show's mythos, meaning they couldn't really do their own thing as the show's writers frequently [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants wrote by the seat of their pants]], making it hard to play catch up. Eventually they just called it an AlternateContinuity and starting playing with the world themselves, with the arc kickstarting this change ending in [[BigBad The Lich]] getting killed off in particular. The show writers, however, considered the comic as non-canon to the show's timeline.

See also StatusQuoIsGod and DoomedByCanon. Compare FanWorkBan.

Popular series often get adapted into other media than the original — novels or comic books, for instance, made of movies or TV shows. But there's no way Luke Skywalker's going to get killed off in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic; [[note]]while he dies early on in the ''Star Wars: Infinities'' version of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', that's an AlternateUniverse; he's eventually shown in ghost form in the ''Star Wars: Legacy'' comic set over a century later, plus these are both Alternate Universes to the latest movie timeline.[[/note]] generally, licensed alternative media can't kill characters, develop relationships, alter the world, or make any sort of changes that have a chance of messing up the continuity for the original version.

* ''ComicBook/AdventureTime'' has an... odd strain of this trope. The comic's writers consider the comic canon to the show's mythos, meaning that they (at first) only had small, finicky divergences due to unexpected changes or plot twists in the show. However the show writers ''don't'' consider the comic canon and don't take it into account when plotting out episodes. As of late, it seems the comic writers have decided to simply go the AlternateContinuity route (like ''G.I. Joe'' and ''Transformers'' above) and tell their own version of the story (notably beginning by [[spoiler: ''killing off'' ''[[BigBad the Lich]]'']]).

May be avoided if the original series is over. The newer ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' comics not only can change the status quo, but are written by the [[Creator/JossWhedon series creator]]. . A similar thing is likely to happen to the ''Star Wars'' continuity, now that new films have been announced--indeed, the old Expanded Universe is now an AlternateContinuity known as ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', but its elements are available to authors to re-canonize.

Popular series often get adapted into other media than the original — novels or comic books, for instance, made of movies or TV shows. But there's no way Luke Skywalker's going to get killed off in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic; [[note]]while he dies early on in the ''Star Wars: Infinities'' version of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', that's an AlternateUniverse; he's eventually shown in ghost form in the Star Wars: Legacy'' comic set over a century later, plus these are both Alternate Universes to the latest movie timeline.[[/note]] generally, licensed alternative media can't kill characters, develop relationships, alter the world, or make any sort of changes that have a chance of messing up the continuity for the original version.

Popular series often get adapted into other media than the original — novels or comic books, for instance, made of movies or TV shows. But there's no way Luke Skywalker's going to get killed off in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic; [[note]]while he dies early on in the ''StarWarsInfinities'' version of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', that's an AlternateUniverse; he's eventually shown dying of old age in the prime timeline[[/note]] generally, licensed alternative media can't kill characters, develop relationships, alter the world, or make any sort of changes that have a chance of messing up the continuity for the original version.

*** However, the manga series ''Gundam the Origin'' completely and utterly ignores this (it helps that it's being written and illustrated by the original character designer and apparently has Tomino's blessing) and introduces a chain of events that while [[AdaptationDistillation similar, are significantly changed and make a whole hell of a lot more sense in some respects.]] It's from here that a lot of the backstory for the mainline universe can be gleaned (though distortedly). Tomino is not a stickler for continuity; his novelisations and {{Compilation Movie}}s often change plots around.

* Video games based on Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium have long faced similar restriction from two opposite directions, because the licenses to adapt original literature works and {{Creator/PeterJackson}}'s [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings movies]] were sold to separate studios. On one side were the games unable to use any of the designs, lines or actors from the movies even when they were very well-known and liked (''The Fellowship of the Ring'', ''VideoGame/TheHobbit2003'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsWarOfTheRing'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline''). On the other side were the games unable to include anything at all that was not explicitly referenced on-screen in the movies, severely limiting available plotlines (''The Two Towers'', ''The Return of the King'', ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheThirdAge'', ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth''). And of course nobody at all has the rights to ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'', placing events and characters exclusive to those books permanently off-limits.

* Due to concerns of ContinuityLockout, the TV portion of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has so far not been able to have any effect on the movies. While shows like ''Series/AgentCarter'', ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'', ''Series/JessicaJones'' and ''Series/LukeCage'' are sufficiently distanced from the movies for it to not matter, ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' is bound by the rule that the Avengers cannot know that Coulson is still alive. This has led to a few cases where Coulson has to remind people who know the Avengers not to tell them about him, and in turn the movies have not acknowledged Coulson's survival even when he could or should logically appear - specifically, ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has [[spoiler:Comicbook/NickFury show up with a Helicarrier he had kept hidden]], and the following ''Agents'' episode established that Coulson was involved in setting it up, but the movie doesn't mention Coulson's involvement at all.

* ''ComicBook/AdventureTime'' has an... odd strain of this trope. The comic's writers consider the comic canon to the show's mythos, meaning that they (at first) only had small, finicky divergences due to unexpected changes or plot twists in the show. However the show writers ''don't'' consider the comic canon and don't take it into account when plotting out episodes. As of late it seems the comic writers have decided to simply go the AlternateContinuity route (like ''G.I. Joe'' and ''Transformers'' above) and tell their own version of the story (notably beginning by [[spoiler: ''killing off'' ''[[BigBad the Lich]]'']]).

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

** The ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels after the cancellation of the original series]] made changes and revealed great swaths of history, much of which had to be ignored[[note]] which does not necessarily mean retconned; in a world with as much TemporalMutability as the Whoniverse, it is assumed — and, on occasions, confirmed by WordOfGod — that "everything is canon", we're just seeing different possible timelines[[/note]] when the TV series started up again over a decade later. One of the post-revival episodes was an explicit retelling of the novel ''Human Nature'', written by the same guy (Creator/PaulCornell).

* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' books have suffered greatly from this. Since a lot of choices are left to the player, the books have been forced to remain neutral on big issues such as [[spoiler:the fate of the original council, the Destiny Ascension, who survived on Virmire, what happened to the rachni and humanity's representative]] as well as smaller ones right down to [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard's]] gender. Only exception being the BadEnding of [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 2]], which is directly [[CanonDiscontinuity contradicted]] in first issue of the ''Homeworlds'' comic series.

* Due to concerns of ContinuityLockout, The TV portion of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has so far not been able to have any effect on the movies. While shows like ''Series/AgentCarter'', ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'', ''Series/JessicaJones'' and ''Series/LukeCage'' are sufficiently distanced from the movies for it to not matter, ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' is bound by the rule that the Avengers cannot know that Coulson is still alive. This has led to a few cases where Coulson has to remind people who know the Avengers not to tell them about him, and in turn the movies have not acknowledged Coulson's survival even when he could or should logically appear - specifically, ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has [[spoiler:Comicbook/NickFury show up with a Helicarrier he had kept hidden]], and the following ''Agents'' episode established that Coulson was involved in setting it up, but the movie doesn't mention Coulson's involvement at all.

* TheBasaltCityChronicles, which is not only RestrictedExpandedUniverse (The author goes to the universe's creators for permission for virtually everything he adds), but is also that Verse's [[AllThereInTheManual Manual]].

May be avoided if the original series is over. The newer ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' comics not only can change the status quo, but are written by the [[Creator/JossWhedon series creator]]. The ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels after the cancellation of the original series]] made changes and revealed great swaths of history, much of which had to be ignored[[note]] which does not necessarily mean retconned; in a world with as much TemporalMutability as the Whoniverse, it is assumed — and, on occasions, confirmed by WordOfGod — that "everything is canon", we're just seeing different possible timelines[[/note]] when the TV series started up again over a decade later. One of the post-revival episodes was an explicit retelling of the novel ''Human Nature'', written by the same guy (Creator/PaulCornell). A similar thing is likely to happen to the ''Star Wars'' continuity, now that new films have been announced--indeed, the old Expanded Universe is now an AlternateContinuity known as ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', but its elements are available to authors to re-canonize.

This trope only applies if the adaptation is meant to follow the same continuity as the original series (though not necessarily vice versa). As a result, it seldom applies in the opposite direction — a movie made from a comic book can change anything the writer wants.

* A variation of this happens in anime with {{Filler}}. The non-filler episodes are adapted from the manga and can advance the plot; the filler episodes cannot. Or, if they do, everything has to go back to the way it was before at the end of the filler.
** ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''
** ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''
** ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' (The "Journey To Namek", "Return of Garlic Jr." and "Otherworld Tournament" arcs)

*** However, the manga series ''Gundam the Origin'' completely and utterly ignores this (it helps that it's being written and illustrated by the original character designer and apparently has Tomino's blessing) and introduces a chain of events that while [[AdaptationDistillation similar, are significantly changed and make a whole hell of a lot more sense in some respects.]] It's from here that a lot of the backstory for the mainline universe can be gleaned (though distortedly).
*** Even before Gundam the Origin, Tomino's adaptation of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' completely subverts this trope by actually [[spoiler:having Amuro and Sayla in a sexual relationship that wasn't in the series, and killing Amuro near the end.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', mainly due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers a confluence of legal issues]]. The game is set in the prime universe post-dating the Hobus supernova from ''Film/StarTrek'' (2009), but due to the fact that the license comes from CBS rather than Paramount they can only use story details, not visuals. CBS also has veto power over Cryptic's ideas, and they're also restricted in their use of TV-canon characters because, while the ''character'' belongs to CBS and is thus usable, the ''likeness'' belongs to the actors so Cryptic has to negotiate with them separately or use an OffModel (the latter of which they've mostly stopped doing). They also have to negotiate separately to use elements from other works in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' EU (although they do often get permission).

May be avoided if the original series is over. The newer ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' comics not only can change the status quo, but are written by the [[Creator/JossWhedon series creator]]. The ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels after the cancellation of the original series]] made changes and revealed great swaths of history, much of which had to be ignored when the TV series started up again over a decade later. One of the post-revival episodes was an explicit retelling of the novel ''Human Nature'', written by the same guy (Creator/PaulCornell). A similar thing is likely to happen to the ''Star Wars'' continuity, now that new films have been announced--indeed, the old Expanded Universe is now an AlternateContinuity known as ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', but its elements are available to authors to re-canonize.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', mainly due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers a confluence of legal issues]]. The game is set in the prime universe post-dating the Hobus supernova from ''Film/StarTrek'' (2009), but due to the fact that the license comes from CBS rather than Paramount they can only use story details, not visuals. CBS also has veto power over Cryptic's ideas, and they're also restricted in their use of TV-canon characters because, while the ''character'' belongs to CBS and is thus usable, the ''likeness'' belongs to the actors so Cryptic has to negotiate with them separately[[labelnote:*]]So far they've gotten Creator/MichaelDorn, Creator/TimRuss, and Creator/DeniseCrosby on board for fully voiced appearances by Worf, Tuvok, Sela, and Tasha Yar, and ''[[ExpansionPack Delta Rising]]'' adds three more ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' cast members.[[/labelnote]] or use an OffModel (which they've mostly stopped doing). They also have to negotiate separately to use elements from other works in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' EU (although they do often get permission).

*** And the [[spoiler:complete annihilation/liberation of the Borg]] in the Destiny trilogy. Isn't it fun to write in a universe where nothing canonical is coming out for years to come?

* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' books have suffered greatly from this. Since a lot of choices are left to the player, the books have been forced to remain neutral on big issues such as [[spoiler:the fate of the original council, the Destiny Ascension, who survived on Virmire, what happened to the rachni and humanity's representative]] as well as smaller ones right down to [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard's]] gender. Only exception being the BadEnding of [[VideGame/MassEffect2 2]], which is directly [[CanonDiscontinuity contradicted]] in first issue of the ''Homeworlds'' comic series.

** ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' (The "Journey To Namek", "Return of Garlic Jr." and "Otherworld Tournament" arcs, respectively)

* Writers for the old ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' (now ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''), besides following the regular continuity, had to abide to a certain set of rules established by Lucasfilm. Among those revealed to the fans are:

Popular series often get adapted into other media than the original — novels or comic books, for instance, made of movies or TV shows. But there's no way Luke Skywalker's going to get killed off in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic; [[note]](while he dies early on in the ''StarWarsInfinities'' version of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', that's an AlternateUniverse; he's eventually shown dying of old age in the prime timeline)[[/note]] generally, licensed alternative media can't kill characters, develop relationships, alter the world, or make any sort of changes that have a chance of messing up the continuity for the original version.

* As in other things, ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' gets into the act with this, too, in the form of novels built around canon characters from the game, particularly in the form of Jason "Bear" Bondarevski (first introduced in the ''Wing Commander 2'' ExpansionPack ''Special Ops 1'') in activities taking place in the Landreich. The Landreich, a vague analogy of the early United States ({{IN SPACE}}), was pretty much created specifically for William Forstchen to have some place to play that won't break anything in the "core" universe of the games.

* Also a problem in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels, although the ''StarTrekNewFrontier'' and ''I.K.S. Gorkon'' series dodge it by having new crews based off of one-shot characters, and the ''Titan'' series does by being set after the events of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.