Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

I don't know what to think about this. I am going to wait and see until concrete information on continuity and timeline placement is provided.

 

This is hilarous.

Lucas finally lets go of the wheel and he still gets bashed.

 

Regarding the money issue of reboot vs. continuity respecting. The Long Tail comes into play here. The Star Wars EU is not just vast, it's durable. The old novels are still in print. You can go buy the Han Solo adventures from Amazon.com, new, right now. How many other Mass Market Paperbacks from 1992 can make that claim? The same thing is true for some of the old comics, Dark Empire is still available, having gone through multiple editions. The video games and physical merchandise don't have that kind of durability of course (though you can by KOTOR on Steam), but it's amazing how profitable the old EU must still be.

If you reboot the EU everything is lost, including a considerable margin of yet-to-be-realized sales on not yet released or ongoing material, such as new novels, TOR, and in the extreme case TCW DVDs (and any money the series makes in the syndication it just acquired).

Yes new movies in reboot will almost certainly make a giant pile of money, but that's not the question. The question is whether or not they would make a giant pile of money more than they would by being placed in a continuity-neutral scenario, and equally important over the long-term, whether a new, multiple continuity EU would thrive compared to the old one. Even in the best case scenario a new EU loses the long tail. Sales of the old novels and comics (especialy the crummy ones) would plummet, that's a stream of pure profit that simply dissapears from the ledgers. I'm not a business-man so maybe I'm not in the right frame of mind, but it would take a lot of promise to make me throw away that stream of free money.

The original Star Wars was a lightning-in-a-bottle space opera phenomenon. It would be devilishly hard to duplicate by even a excellent new trilogy. Moreover, Star Wars was launched in a much more concentrated media market than the diffusion of today's internet saturated entertainment world. The fandom has been passed down from parent to child so far, or continued into surprisingly old age, reboot and you risk breaking that. Someone would have to exercise some serious stones to actually do that, or a particularly flagrant disregard for the opinions of one of the world's largest fandoms. Lucas possessed the second trait, certainly, but he's no longer making the decisions, its a group of suits at Disney. Not sure they'll put their heads on the block for this.

 

You know what would make me not "bash" Lucas? If he let go. It's done. The story is of Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is dead. Let Star Wars rest. Unless, you know, Darth Vader is resurrected in the sequel trilogy. Maul sets a precedent....

 

By jove, I think he's got it.

Dude, timeline placement isn't in the top ten things to worry about right now.

 

Calm down.

 

Oh come on, we know virtually nothing other than they plan on making Episode VII. Such scenarios demand a wait and see approach. Maybe it will take place in its own separate post-RotJ timeline.

 

Who knows, maybe it'll be set post-TUF and we can avoid the DNT, FotJ and LotF?

 

Gosh, you're right. When Disney took over Marvel, they had every copy of the OHMU burned.
Oh, wait - nothing changed.


That doesn't mean that there won't be changes with Star Wars - it's a different scenario. But it's also premature to say anything. If you have something useful to contribute on that score, feel free. But if you're just here to tell us all that you don't like the EU - thanks, we've heard it before.

 

I hope it's a sequel trilogy that relegates the post-ROTJ EU as we know it to alternate-universe status. Because Threepio and Artoo haven't been anything more than set dressing since Hero's Trial. A new trilogy of movies would actually attempt to do something with them, and give them meaty roles.

It's all about the robots!

 

One has to wonder, though... what would the reaction be if George Lucas decided to one day say, "enough, you've had your fun, I'm closing Star Wars to all other writers, deal with it".

Personally, I'd be annoyed, but of course it's a bit of a different scenario if he were to do it now, so far in, rather than do it from the beginning.

 

Well i'm certainly not going to buy Crucible or Sword of the Jedi if its about to become fan fiction. I hope they get that. There is far better fan fiction out there then the current Universe.

 

Just thought of something... am I the only one who will laugh if they set it shortly after ROTJ, and kill Chewie all over again?

 

I was so shocked at this news (okay a little exaggerated but it's to make a point). Star Wars has been the one franchise that I've heavily infested in ever since I was five. I have a ton of action figures (now stuffed in a box), books (including all the old Bantam ones like the Thrawn trilogy, Tales, Splinter of the Minds Eye, Bounty Hunter Trilogy, etc), played the games, and I have all the comics in trade form, etc. It outstrips my DC and Marvel books. Why? Because unlike DC and Marvel which always had Anti-Monitors, Superboy's, and Scarlet Witches to "reset" things Star Wars I could always count on to have a solid continuity. Yeah there were issues at times, but other authors were always willing to work those continuity issues out through their "Essential Guides" But I was always told, especially by Lucasfilm themselves that "these books, comics, games, etc ARE THE OFFICIAL CONTINUATION..." Now there is a very real possibility that Disney will invalidate everything I ever bought or read since I was a kid (side note the Marvel movies are considered "alternate universes" not the real Earth 616 hence why not many fans get stirred up about all the movies). I hope you all know how the Traviss people felt about the Mandos now

Some other, non personal, Initial semi-rational thoughts:

1. The EU. There better be an official word from Lucas or someone that the EU I literally grew up with is not going to be changed (too much to hope for when there's $ involved) or turned into a parallel universe or something (even then I'm refusing to ever buy any books or comics from the DSWU ever again because Star Wars will be just like DC and Marvel) I believe we EU fans who kept Lucas afloat in the years between Episodes III and I and that invested so much $ in the pre-Disney EU deserve that. (If nothing else at least eliminate TCW as well!!)

2. While it's great that with Disney's money and Pixar we can see really great films and games, there's a side of me that worries that we might see
a) The extreme kiddification of Star Wars. So that stuff in the comics and games like the minor sex (Agent of the Empire, TOR, others) and violence and politics will be eliminated (something that worried me when Marvel was bought but luckily Disney seems to be totally hands off on their comic side and dabble a slight bit movie wise) and we get more "Star Wars Christmas Specials"
b) The actual death of Star Wars as a franchise. In their efforts to make as much $ as possible from their new property I think that Disney might over play their hand and make too much Star Wars stuff so that everyone gets Star Wars fatigue and it becomes "oh ANOTHER Star Wars film...why's that popular again?" Look at the history of movie franchises Spider-man, X-Men, Robocop, Terminator, etc After the 2nd movie people get bored (unless it's Nolan and Batman). Even the recent "reboots" of classics like Planet of the Apes, Total Recall, etc have been flops.

3. Disney is notorious for suing everyone that doesn't give them $$ for anything Mickey related they create or even for using the image. Can we see a crackdown on forums like this, the 501st, and other fan sites/art? (probably not considering Marvel's been fine but still a possibility)

4. Yay!!! At least Lucas is gone!!! At the price of my continuity...but hey...

 

well, i guess we get a lot of wait and seeing. i mean, we don't know anything at this point. making assumptions either way is just going to cause problems, so let's just let it go for now.

 

2
a) I would not be worried about kiddification in comics and lit. Marvel Comics still kills plenty in their comics.
b) Could be possibly overmined.

3. I doubt it Disney does not usually sue forums.

 

I have a very bad feeling about this...

 

That would be an interesting scenario. The immediate reaction would be to drive Star Wars underground. Fanfiction would proliferate even more than it already does, as would fanfilms and parodies. Lucas could bring suit in some cases, but you can't win at internet wack-a-mole and fair use parody law can defend certain depictions.

Lucas would, of course, eventually die, and control would pass to his estate, which would obviously want to mobilize Star Wars again (or whichever share of it was distributed to various parties) so there would be a re-spooling up of new material production, the only real question would be if interest lasted long enough. A franchise can hold on for a surprising amount of time in stasis or while dead (Firefly anyone?), so it would be an interesting test.

Thinking about it this sale does resolve one question: what happens to Star Wars when Lucas dies? The answer is now, and presumably forevermore given the corporate entity involved, Disney continues to control it.

 

I'd love for them to set it after NJO, have mentions of all that stuff in the crawl and then just have Luke hand the reigns over to the next generation and nix DNT, LOTF, FOTJ etc.

And just for shavit and giggles, bring back Jimmy.

 

Longest. Crawl. Ever.

 

actually, lucasfilm ltd still owns it, but they're owned by disney. but they aren't merging, so creative control and all that doesn't pass onto disney. they just have control over the board of directors and get a cut of the profits. or all the profits, or something.

 

Its confirmed Episode VII will be about Ahsoka, Starkiller and Luke (played by that Twilight guy) rebuild the Jedi Order. Lea will be played by Kristen Stewart, and Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Han.

 

as has been said repeatedly in the YJCC thread, there is almost no way in hell they get ford to play han again.

 

If that happened I would laugh hysterically and cry as I burnt everything Star Wars that I own and then firebomb Disney.

 

Didn't Ford say something about that with Indiana Jones quite some time ago? I dunno, for something like this, I find it incredibly unlikely they couldn't pay him enough to make a cameo.