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

Planet of Twilight, too. Though frankly I'd rather see Jedi going against non-Force sensitive Hutts -- with all the moral issues involved -- than a Sith Hutt, of all abominations, as a baddie. Just imagine the audience backlash when it turns out the end boss is a huge lightsaber-wielding slug.

Now I'm seriously thinking, though, if they'll manage to come up with an audience-satisfying plot that does not involve Sith in some form. I seriously hope they will... but I can't really see it now.

When I see the phrase "unsubstantiated rumors" my brain hears "someone with no authority thinks that X will happen".

the only reason I said it was, I LOVE SHELL HUTTS

Probably something George said then.

What exactly are the rumors then?

We don't know. It's just something myron said that we're all overreacting to.

Give me a chance to get home from work, guys!

The "rumor" that's been floating about Crucible is that it's going to be some sort of bridge novel transitioning from the old EU to the "new" EU.

I'm not saying that it's unpossible. I am saying that every time I've seen it come up it's been based on the flimsiest of guesswork and circumstantial evidence.

I've heard this before....

Good example - they did a bridge comic to lead into the timeline-changing Trek film. And guess what, the film didn't really line up with the comic, even though it was marketed as (and I think the authors truly believed it would be) the official background story.

That sounds like exactly the right thing to sell at a hardcover price.

Ah, the good old Shell Hutts.

Star Wars has always been a great visual feature of escalation, especially when it comes to creatures. Think of the underwater scene on Naboo for example, as one fish creature is attacked / eaten by a larger one.

In the new Sequel Trilogy, it would be great to feature Hutts once again. Perhaps we can have a scene like Return of the Jedi, when Jabba reaches down at grabs and eats a frog like thing. Perhaps in the new movie, an even larger hand is then shown, picking up, and eating a Hutt!

Perhaps this even larger Hutt eating creature may also have a soft spot of hard boiled Shell Hutts

Broil them inside the shell, then open the shell and pour the Hutt onto a casserole dish. Add shredded mozzarella, and sprinkle the top with fried onions. Bake for five minutes until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool, then serve. Makes ten-twelve servings.

Wait, it didn't? I didn't remember inconsistencies. Just that the movie had plot holes because it didn't explain things the comic did.

I don't have the details right now, especially since it's been over two years and I don't have either handy to check. But something is off in the backstory drop that Spock gives, something about the jellyfish ship or about the original plan or something. Also, while it's admirable that the comic tries to create as many ties to TNG as possible, sometimes they put too much in to fill the plotholes. I can't really say if any of the stuff came from the script guys, or if they just ran with their own interpretation of the discrepancies. There's great stuff like "why do these Romulans look like that one guy from the last movie and not like Romulans", but also cringeworthy stuff. Ever since 1997, any Trek story that mentions the word Borg comes across as fan fiction, you know. And I seriously wonder if the movie ever mentioned that that thing was originally a mining ship, or if it's just a destroyer that happens to function as an oil rig, as well, and the backstory guys tried to make sense of that. I suddenly ask myself if JJM intended to have the Hot Prospect modified into Malak's flagship if KOTOR had continued...

Growing up with the tv shows, I have to say that the comic book gave me more than the movie. It's like an acknowledgement that part of my youth was being buried, while the movie just made my head hurt. So maybe for EU hardcore fans, having a "final" EU product might be a good eulogy on the whole thing, to have a clean cut to the new SW emerging.

Blargh, anyway, please stop me from going on another rant about "Star Trek 11: The Cosmos Rocks", I already did too many of those!


What's the general opinion on spin-off movies? I think the rumours are pretty much showing how everything could go downhill if somebody started giving out episode numbers to any future movies that might come out, but I can't help but notice that Hollywood doesn't put numerals into sequel titles all the time anymore anyway, and that they'd rather produce stand-alone franchise movies that do not sound as if you need to watch all the rest first. See Trek and Pirates, for example. Personally, I don't believe they would bring in two other scriptwriters if Arndt already wrote the treatments for all three episodes with Lucas and happens to be of Oscar-nomination quality.

For all those of us who don't want to disregard all the post-ROTJ stuff in the EU, how about we just treat the new films as Infinities stories?

The Star Trek movie did not even line up its story within itself.

We have been there already.




Grand Jabba blew her up.

Serve along with deep fried Gand?

Like the Star Trek movie does itself? Would be an option. Though not going to happen.

In principle, I've no problem with spin-offs.

I mean, from a certain point of view, the EU is a series of spin-offs, so if they just want to add movies to the expanded repertoire, then so be it. We've often talked about how cool it would be to see a movie set in [insert period], so if spin-offs allow us to break away from the Skysolos and see some other things on the big screen, then cool.

Obviously there's the "Will they respect continuity?!" question, but... I suspect spin-offs would increasingly discover that they needed to, as there will inevitably be diminishing returns from never-ending-sequels if they do decide to go down that road (though admittedly I'm sceptical if we'll see a tenth film as fast as they're currently planning), since while the Sequel Trilogy will capture the imagination of the mainstream film audiences who are just looking for a good adventure movie, the masses will get bored after a point, so the fans will slowly become a larger demographic proportionally. Well, unless they just decide to say "screw it" and make films with laser swords and Star Destroyers with the sole focus whatever "will look coolest on screen", but at that point the whole notion of continuity goes out the window, so the point becomes moot.

I've no idea how sustainable Star Wars would be as a brand if they went that road either... how many films with random dudes with lightsabers beating on each other can you do before it grows old? "Wouldn't it be cool if...!" films about Darth Vader vs Darth Revan are cool for a couple of times, but I can see people getting bored quickly if they just do that sort of spin-off.

Whether they'll stick episode numbers...? Not sure.

You're right that these days there have been more Dead Man's Chests than X-Men 2s, but Star Wars as a brand is rooted in its pulp culture homages to yesteryear, so I can very, very easily see the first spin-off being labelled Episode X, even if it has nothing to do with the rest of the Saga and is in no way set chronologically after Episode IX. I can foresee them doing some branding exercises somehow to find out what they think will be most well received. Episode X has a more powerful selling point, but I honestly have no idea what the mainstream masses would prefer... The Clone Wars failed to reach audiences, but was that because it was an animation? Or did people not "perceive" it as a continuation of the Saga, because it was just "another one of those never-ending Star Wars spin-offs", without the selling point of an actual Episode numerical?

Although if it's something as simple as Star Wars: Darth Vader, I could easily enough see them dropping the numerical. (Not that Wolverine necessarily sets a good example of that approach. )

Perhaps something that the powers-that-be could borrow from the Expanded Universe, is the era titles.

Lets say, after the main nine episode Skywalker saga, there will be more movies, as we know Disney has publically stated that there will be.

Perhaps they go back in the timeline, and have an X-Wing movie. Instead of starting with:

Star Wars
Episode ...
Title

It could feature an era title instead of an episodic number:

Star Wars
New Republic Era
Title

I feel like the EU could pretty easily be reconciled w/ whatever changes Episode 7 brings, by doing similar to Star Trek. Merge continuities into a timeline change. Flow Walking is the easiest way to do this. Jaina (or whoever) walks back to whatever catalyst time event and alters the future. It's the easiest retcon, and still allows for similar yet alternate EU experiences (i.e. FOTJ or whatever series still happens, but maybe Anakin is still alive or Han Solo is already dead). Whatever.

Sorry, but Flow Walking is still the queerest thing I have heard.

I want spin-offs.

Reasons:
-- they allow for cool storytelling and a practically endless number of installments without dragging the main Saga (or the story of the GFFA as a whole) past the point of Unjustifiable Ridiculousness;

-- IMO the best stories of the "old" EU were spinoff stories (most of WEG's story seeds, the X-Wing series, Coruscant Nights, many Adventure Journal stories, the Lobot parts of the BFC, YJK, the Force Heretic trilogy, ...), whereas most of the later galaxy-spanning Big Three adventures never really did that much for me;

-- and since I believe that (most of) the old continuity will go out the window anyway, they will serve to expand the universe again; add to that the spinoff books to the spinoff movies and we might get a density of world-building and storytelling like never before.

So, yeah, spinoffs FTW. Focus on fan-favorite characters, explore places and situations in more depth, and hell, give us those GCW Vader films already if the Live-Action series is really dead.

Agreed, but it's still a handy retcon just waiting to be utilized. It's time travel...but not time travel. Dig it?

It sounds like something Michael Jackson would do, circa 1980's.

As much as I'd love the notion of planning and not believing that DR and DH got more or less as blindsided by the announcement as we did, if Crucible is secretly some EU-altering bridge story, why would they go ahead and announce SOTJ, unless they also know that Jaina, Tahiri, Ben, Allana and Jag's existence won't be snuffed out, in which case it doesn't sound like they'd need a bridging old-new EU type of story in the first place.

However you slice it, I feel that their announcement of SOTJ can only mean three things, broadly speaking.

1) They didn't know when they announced it.

2) They knew when they announced it but have reason to believe the EU won't be irreparably destroyed by the new films.

3) They knew when they announced it and have no idea about the damage the new films will do, but figure they can't just wait around publishing nothing for two and a half years, so they announced it anyway, and really aren't sure if they'll have to scrap it later.

The only option that implies they had enough of a heads up to plan something like these "unsubstantiated rumours" are suggesting is 2), which is also the option that suggests a radical story, on the scale of the Star Trek alternate timeline idea, wouldn't be necessary.

You forgot Paul S. Kemp's duology, Becca. That is still hypersecret (although it still seems to be in the 'forthcoming' category) -- and a duology would be a better bridgeover-work than any single novel to my way of thinking

I'm still wondering if the ST might prompt the publishers to cancel Crucible and SOTJ, and any other books set in the NJO/Legacy era.