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The fictional Endorian Holocaust is a devastation of the forest moon of Endor which is incorrectly theorized to have happened after the second Death Star was destroyed (in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) by the impact of falling debris. It has not been established to have occurred in any canon sources, but has been proposed by fans as a scientifically inevitable consequence of the events portrayed.

The likeliest explanation in the real world is merely that the producer Lucas did not realize the likely consequences of such a massive explosion so nearby, or chose to ignore these effects for the sake of the plot.

The second Death Star was a sphere of machinery somewhere between 180 and 900 kilometers in diameter (depending on the sources one holds to be authoritative; for more on the size controversy, see the Death Star page). It was very close to Endor's forest moon when it exploded. As it was so near, and the moon's gravity was relatively Earth-like, its geostationary orbit was likely being artificially maintained. Much of the debris from the explosion would have rained down on the moon, producing a meteor storm of titanic proportions. The relative tranquility of the region immediately around the former shield generator in the brief celebratory scenes set there after the Death Star was destroyed, has been attributed to active deflection of debris from this area by Rebel forces, but the Holocaust's ecological effects are speculated to be drastic enough that this would provide only temporary respite even there.

If the Endor Holocaust occurred, it would certainly have led to the extinction of the majority of life on the Sanctuary Moon, including the Ewoks, unless significant efforts were made to counter the induced climactic changes. However, the Star Wars comics and novels have established that some Ewoks had been removed from Endor in the past as pets or slaves—in fact, two Ewoks are shown fighting alongside rebels in the Dark Empire comic series—so it is possible the species itself survived, even if the holocaust occurred as predicted.

Some Expanded Universe sources maintain that the forest moon of Endor was not significantly affected by the destruction of the Death Star and life continues there as normal. One other suggested it was destroyed, but the author had taken pains to paint it as Imperial propaganda, and thus supposedly unreliable, despite it being the scientifically mandated result. Pro-Holocaust debaters speculate that the well-established pro-New Republic bias in most of the literature was responsible for the apparent cover-up. Another rationalization involves a rapid and strenuous effort so the moon can regain a semblance of normalcy for its later appearances, though it is not clear where the supposedly resource-strapped Rebel Alliance will find the tools to do so. Another theory postulates the Death Star's explosion was asymmetric, and very nearly all of the debris missed the moon.

In one of the Star Wars Tales comics, an Imperial veteran of Endor makes an apparent reference to the holocaust theory, after telling the story of his unit's trouble with the Ewoks in a bar. Another character dismisses it as a myth, saying that most of the Death Star's mass was obliterated in the explosion, and that the Rebels "took care of the rest."

In the Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn, the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn refers to Ewoks living on Endor. In the Jedi Academy Trilogy, by Kevin J. Anderson, the character of Kyp Durron visits the site of Darth Vader's funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor. There is no indication given that the planet has suffered any cataclysm in either work.

Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy describes how the Rebels managed to use shields and tractor beams to protect their strike team on the moon of Endor, but by possible implication (supported by the title of "The Aftermath of Victory") dooming the rest of the forest moon to the ecological disaster.

In the novel Wedge's Gamble, the second novel of the X-wing series, Ysanne Isard mentions that she wants the Krytos virus to affect Ewoks, indicating that Ewoks still exist. In a later X-Wing novel, Warlord Zsinj is depicted as using Ewoks in experiments to advance "primitive" alien species to near-human intelligence and ability. He used the cover organisation Binring Biomedical to perform these experiments. Wraith Squadron's Voort saBinring, or "Piggy", was one of the better turnouts of said experiments.

The First issue of 2005's X-Wing minisiers from Dark Horse comics, begins one week after the battle and shows Rebel ships dousing a forest fire begat by debris from the Death Star.

The two Ewok telefilms (Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor) are set on a non-devastated Endor, but Lucasfilm has since confirmed that the events depicted occur some time before Return of the Jedi, so they cannot be taken into account.

The complexity of the discussion is compounded by the different levels of Star Wars canon, and the ways different groups resolve contradictions.

The anti-Holocaust faction insist that because the film did not show debris hitting Endor (although it showed some debris burning up in the atmosphere), and that it would be uncharacteristic for the Rebel characters to callously celebrate amid a friendly population doomed by their actions.

Some also argue "author's intent", saying that Lucas did not intend for Endor to die. The pro-Holocaust argument holds that under suspension of disbelief, author's intent did not count, assuming that even a non-scientist like Lucas can hardly have thought blowing the Death Star right next to the forest moon of Endor in a manner that clearly produced a fragmentation pattern, could possibly be good for it. So, while George Lucas clearly did not intend Endor to die (as can be seen in the Expanded Universe entry on the Star Wars website), the only way that this could possibly be accomplished would be to explicitly state that the Empire was completely eliminated immediately after the battle and the moon received massive aid from thousands of newly freed worlds. Unfortunately, this would also clearly contradict the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which Lucas seems loath to do (at least explicitly).

This debate continues sporadically among die-hard Star Wars fans on the Internet.