ST Official Sequel Trilogy / Legends / Expanded Universe discussion thread

I had a theory back in the speculation days during the prequels that Han and Boba were brothers. This was shouted down with much derision, but here's my thinking: Why did Jango want a semi-grown clown of himself in return for being the template for the clones? Because his real son, Han, had run off, or gone "Solo". This is why Han fits the stormtrooper outfit so much better than Luke, and also why Han reacts o strongly to the announcement that Boba is after him when he's blind...Hearing that Han and Boba are gonna have major storylines in some upcoming projects, I still think this is a real possibility.

 

I know it's an honest typo, but

 

This I can definitely see happening. "You know at least George Lucas made those films, you know? These films are like impostors."

 

Nothing can save some of the low-points the prequels produced. I'm talking about Jar-Jar. I'm talking about rolling down during a picnic. I'm talking about "he killed...younglings."

We are all in store for a great star war movie, with what WILL BE the best visuals to date. I mean, wait until that first x-wing fight...it will make us pee our pants.

 

I have a feeling that the that Star Wars Episode VII may be about Han and Leia's children, Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo. On IMDB, Harrison Ford is predicted to play an older Han. If what I believe is to be true, then maybe in the future we will see Jacen Solo become... Darth Caedus!

 

I don't think it'll be a remake of Legacy of the Force but I do have a feeling they'll use the same character names. They're perfectly cromulent names to use!

 

This would not be an original story. Also, it would not be good.

 

To me there has to be a balance. You can't just erase all the E.U. cause they have made Lucas and the Star Wars Brand a lot of money. But at the same time you can't follow the E.U. word for word cause a lot of the stories deal with a lot of "What If's". I say you keep the kids names the same from the E.U. as a nod to the books. That way all that history can pretty much stay intact. Then they need to do a spin off of "The Clone Wars" animated series and have a new animated series that is set between the 30 years of Episode VI and VII. Mark can even come back and do his original voice since voice over is his lane now.

 

That seems like a fair starting point- they don't have to heavily reference the EU- but it would be nice if they don't abolish it either.

 

There will always be some tie-in material and therefore an "Expanded Universe". The real question is what will happen with the Canon-system. The Canon-system how it is right now will probably not work very well if both the ST and the spin-offs conflict with all the EU stories. Not every contradiction can be retconned away easily.

Will we get an A- and B-Universe?
Will most post-ROTJ-stories be declared non-canon and the rest remain canon?
Or will retcons suffice?

Right now I think that option 2 is the most likely one because it still keeps most stories in-canon and doesn't cause as big a hassle as option 1. Option 3 only works if the differences between ST and current stories are minor.

 

Even if lots/most of the contradictions can be retconned away easily, you get to a point were the canon is destroyed by the retcons and it becomes pointless.

Why can't they just erase it? New books would just make them more money.

And keeping the names but changing everything about the characters and story isn't keeping things in intact. And why does a post RotJ cartoon have to be 30 years later? It would be 15 years or 5 years later.....

 

Yes, this could very well happen and then we'd have A and B universe.

 

People read a lot less now in this age of computers, ipods and tablets. The percentage of young people reading is even further down. People who do still read Star Wars likely buy the current crop of written Star Wars fiction.

I guess I would just wonder if Disney rebooted the whole deal and came at us with new books and a new timeline would the hundreds of thousands of current readers, ones who have enjoyed the current EU, support that?

Could be that Disney doesn't even care and would simply look for tie in books to be on the shelves at the same time that the films come out.

One thing that you leave out of your posts Fenton, is that pretty much every second post in this thread is from someone who wants to see the current policies maintained. Your response to that would be that a few internet posters don't equal squat in the Sea of Star Wars fans.

One thing we do know is that TF.N Literature forums have a lot more topics and posts than the Movie Forums, and if we take away the fan club social aspects of the SWC, more topics and more posts than every other Star Wars forum here combined since whenever it was that TF.N went online(1999 maybe?) I wonder how much that counts for? Certainly not every Lit poster is a fan of all things Lit of course, but it is an interesting bunch of numbers to look at.

 

Most likely many EU fans would not support that, but an ST could create a whole new generation of EU fans.

 

Disney knows how to make money. They'll produce the EU material in a way and deliever it in a way that would appeal and sell to the most people. Its its novels, we'll get novels. If its something else, itw ill be something else. But new material would be consumed by the fans in whatever form it is in.

People on who post on here and want things maintained are a vocal minority, and they are also the same people who will buy the new stuff that Disney and Lucasfilm produce even after they "trash" the current EU. Disney is going to be producing 150-200 million dollar movie, and then 2 more after it, and several spin-offs etc.... Those movies will be mad eto appeal to a wide audience, not the hardcore Star Wars fans who post on theforce.net. ANd tying those movies into 20-30 years worth of history covered in 30-40 books isn't way to appeal to a wide audience. If Abrams didn't want to include Shatner in Star Trek because he didn't want to cover the ground in Shatners book which brought Kirk back to life, he isn't going to want to cover the ground covered in 9 Star Wars books explaining Jaina.

Lucasfilm cared very little about "stomping" on EU when they were making the PT. Why would Kennedy and Disney suddenly care more now?

 

Most EU fans would bitch online, and then buy the material anyway. Its just how these things go.

A few years ago a bunch of people started a buoycot of Call of Duty online for some reason (Something to do with the serves and how they were set up I think), and someone took a pretty famous screen shot of a bunch of people who signed the bouycot playing the game.

People would say they aren't buying anymore EU, they'll sign things online. And soon as Zahn writes the first book in the new EU or the movie continuity, they'll buy the book.

 

I really hope that the main character is original in some way and not part of some existing EU material.

 

I don't think Disney wants to get into and make continuity more complicated.

"This book is ok, but this one doesn't count" doesn't make the franchise easier for new fans to get into.

Sure people will write outraged posts on this board if/when the EU is restarted or whatever, but they'll still buy the new material, and at the end of hte day thats all that matters

 

Agree and disagree... first off too late, the EU in the Clone Wars period has already done this. So so many characters, planets, socities, vechiles, and species have been edited by the movies and TCW tv show. Especially the tv show...

Next off we've been told of a new TV show and with Disney focusing on Episode VII and EU that likely sets up something not exactly what Lucas wanted, in a sense Disney has no choice. Lucas allowed tons of EU material to enter into the show to the point its not even funny, true most characters from the post RotJ time period havent even been born yet or at least appeared but needless to say the set up for them is there and worse it has fans, lots of them (for example the Witches of Dathomir where very popular in TCW tv show yet are from the post RotJ books so even the youngest of fans have been exposed to them and there are plenty of other examples).

Now just like TCW tv did, this doesnt mean they cant reinturrperate everything... however Lucas approved way too much from the EU for it to ever fully go away. The most likely outcome is that everything does get dumped but a lot of it will be reinvented into something new. Just as TCW tv show did it respected what it could of the EU but gave us something new at the same time. Plus lets face it LFL has studied the EU for two decades now, they likely have had ideas of how to redo it now for decades and now over a year to think about how to possibly rework it, after all it seems many LFL employees have known about a new movie for about a year now and as evidenced by TCW show Lucas will allow quite a bit of EU material to enter it. So if they knew the general time period then they knew what time periods EU they would be effecting and likely have studied the hell oit of it to know how to either minimize there impact or rework it in there favor. Even Boba Fett's insanely modified past is proof of this, they knew they had someone popular and thats all that mattered to making him get into the movies and TCW, so as far as LFL is concerened any popular EU character is likely fair game to be reworked just like Boba was and it may work or maybe not but as long as it sells thats all they'll care about and throwing in some EU will likely sell quite a lot or at least really hype a target demographic.

Not including EU has a large cost but so does fully including it, so far Disney has played it very smart and very safe so a middle ground of "not this but that" actuallyis closest to that smart and safe path. I suspect slightly closer to TCW show though of new but adding in as much EU that they liked and that sells as possible, but in a sense that is "not this but that". They brought back Maul cause he sold and gave him brothers, even though his death was all but certain in the movie so any popular EU character likely will make into the new stuff in one form or another too.

 

Let me employ a little syllogistic logic here:

A: Screenwriters dream of working on huge blockbuster films
B: Star Wars is the hugest of blockbuster films
C: Ergo Disney and LFL have the very best of screenwriters hoping for a chance to write for the ST

D: Spinoff literature for blockbuster film franchises is not the dream of aspiring literary writers
E: Ergo the EU is written by hack writers

F: Ambitious writers do not want to be boxed in by stories written by hacks
G: Disney wants a good, well written, story
H: Ergo we will not see much EU influence on the stories of the ST

 

People read a lot less nowadays? I don't know about that one. The successes of novel series like Harry Potter and Twilight would suggest otherwise. There are actually more people reading Star Wars EU now than 20 years ago. This is a fact that is very easy to discover via a little research at your local library.

Disney/LFL does care about the established SW fanbase, I know this because they said so. While the new films will be new stories, you may notice that they say nothing about creating new characters for these films, and in fact state that established characters "we all know and love" will be protected, and this goes beyond "the big three (four, I say)". Disney is aware of the EU, they have said as much. What they dedcide to do with it is still subject to speculation. We do know that Leland is still being consulted in regards to the new films, and that Mike is following George's outline for Ep7. So I'm pretty sure the EU will be respected as much as possible, while still following George's plan.

 

The thing is for the EU to be respected, GL would have had to gone out of his way when writing the treatments for the ST. Somehow I doubt he did that.