Lit Disney Wars: Episode 7 and the EU (Disney Purchasing Lucasfilm, intends to release Ep 7 in 2015)

Yeah I said the same thing (think it was this thread, there have been so many). A clean break where the original EU either ends or continues as an alternate universe to the new movies and TV shows is what I'm hoping for. You can only retcon so much before it becomes stupid. Sure the pre NJO stuff might largely survive the ST, but what happens when they do a new cartoon set after Endor or a new movie set in the KOTOR era? Best to just do it cleanly in 2014 and start the new era in 2015 rather than trying to patch things together with so many retcons that eventually you lose it all anyway.

Sidious was fine, but Maul had absolutely no business being resurrected and I am not sure what to think about the others.

The former two were also non-canon, and I don't have a problem with them.

Like others have shown, I don't even find the idea of a 'resurrected' Chewie that unappealing either, as with the right author there's a genuinely interesting story that could be told about a lone hero's journey to find his way back to his friends, the legendary lost Wookiee fighting to make his way back to the galaxy and the people who love him.

Plus its not like his backstory is likely to have much importance in the movies themselves if the Original Trilogy is anything to go by.

And heck, after all the pain Han and Leia have been put through in the novels, bringing back Chewie could actually do their characters some good for a change.

You don't need to resurrect or clone Chewie, just have someone take off with him in a ship mere minutes after the Falcon leaves, and then have Chewie stranded or imprisoned somewhere.

Resurrecting Chewie would IMO be a big retcon hole in the tapestry of the EU's continuity. All the emotional pain that Han and the others went through because of Chewie's death during the Yuuzhan Vong War would be invalidated. Also, Chewie's death was the signal to readers that the New Jedi Order and by extension the Del Rey era was going to be, for better or worse, very different in tone from the novels of the Bantam era. Retcon it, and... well, for me at least it would take away from the emotional experience I had when reading Vector Prime and the rest of the NJO. Some people might find my reaction silly, but it's the way I feel. Better IMO to have Chewie alive and well in a different continuity at the start of the ST.

Harrison Ford wants Han Solo to die. Chewie shows up on the scene alive and well 20 years after his death, Han Solo has heart attack. Simple enough.

Maybe Chewie and Han were disguised as each other.

They could bring back Peter Mayhew- and have him play Lumpy instead of Chewie.

The problem is that it veers into comic-book territory. And yes, that's one of the problems that I had with Dark Empire (and I'll give KJA credit for turning the plot of DE on its ear with the first arc of the Young Jedi Knights). And even in that case, they at least had a reasonable explanation for his survival (and other authors have also suggested that he didn't actually "survive"). Maul was killed in one of the most straight-forward, no-questions-about-it ways and comes back? It's hack writing, pure and simple - and undermines the entire end of TPM. (It also doesn't bode well for Lucas' outlines for the upcoming movies and rumors swirling about them).

"They said you were dead!"
"RWAAAARRHHAAAAA!!!!"
"They... SAID... you were DEAD!!!"
"RAAWWWRRHAARRHHARRR!!!"


Not a dry eye in the house.

Oh, it can definitely end up being like a comic book, yes. But that's what happens with a bad writer.

I don't see how it "invalidates" anything though. In real life, some people have believed their children dead or missing, only to find out they are still alive years or decades later.

If Madeline McCann were found alive tomorrow, it wouldn't undo the pain her kidnappers have caused her parents during the last six years. But it would sure allow them to try and enjoy the rest of their lives -- like how Chewie's survival would at least bring some healing to Han and Leia.

That's another "Who shot first?" waiting to happen.

The prequels have already contradicted Bantam on at least one minor, Chewie-related issue- in Rebel Dawn it's stated that Chewie has not been back to his homeworld for 50 years, but in Revenge of the Sith, less than 20 years before, we see him on his homeworld.

So, even if they choose to "keep Bantam, Legacy and NJO"- it wouldn't surprise me if there are some contradictions.

Clarification--I don't mean bringing characters back to life under any circumstances; just the EU having to go back and explain why someone is alive in the movies that the books killed off forever ago. The story of Maul's return was a retcon in and of itself; he didn't show up in TCW like everything was normal. Same with Palpatine. If the ST actually started out with Chewie being dead, then told the story of why he's not, that would be another matter--but that's not gonna happen.

WEG gave the Empire anti-alien policies, which I'm not a fan of.

Dark Empire IS a comic book.

So when the guy calls Chewie a thing, you prefer to think that's just one jerk and not indicative of Imperial culture?

It predates WEG- Star Wars Magazine had at least one article suggesting that, to stormtroopers, "the only good alien is a dead alien"

http://www.theforce.net/image_popup/image_popup_global.asp?Image=timetales/misc/arcana/post4-03.jpg

1. Who wrote that article, and when?
2. Palpatine worked with plenty of non-humans.
3. It could be that the Empire hates Wookiees specifically.

The article says "Anthony Fredrickson"

Wookieepedia says it's in Star Wars Official Poster Monthly 4 (January 1978).

So the Stormtroopers were known to be clones in 1978!