Lit Star Wars Cinematic Universe

Yeah I too think it is best for book and comic characters to (for the most part) stay in the medium in which they originated from. I even think it is best for animated characters to not go into live action (and if they do Rogue One is about as far as they take it).

The people making the films aren't going to know those characters the way the fans or the people who created them are going to. And such the film makers probably wouldn't be able to portray them all that well (or at least to the degree that fans and the character creators would expect).

Even in Rogue One the only reason Saw even appeared at all is because Edwards developed a character type for the individual that he wanted to be leading the partisans. LFL saw that and said that there already was a character out there like that who would fit into that role well and so they suggested Edwards use Saw. I don't think Edwards had the slightest clue who Saw was though and in that situation you wouldn't want the filmmakers giving the comic/novel/animation character a real large role in their film. I think the Hera/Chopper/and Ghost Ship easter eggs were done more by LFL than Edwards as well.

So when it all comes down to it I am not sure we could trust the film makers to give these other medium characters justice in their films. And you would want them to spend their time making the film and not spend their time reading up on past books and comics just so they could get those other medium characters just right.

 

Here's the deal: EU = No films = catering to hardcore fans = More developed, larger and complicated universe. A non-film universe won't cater to the masses. When you do cater to the masses the product must be watered down. Here's my best analogy:

Bionicle lasted nearly ten years. By it's end it had amassed a large amount of canon media. The universe was filled with complex characters, lore and terminology. Almost coincidentally the story was more adult-oriented (Not that much, but in comparison). Towards it's end sales were declining. It tried to play the general market, but the general market couldn't buy in to such a product. Upon it's cancellation it was replaced with a new brand called Hero Factory. The new theme was entirely watered down. The story was told in annual films. If you wanted to understand what was going on you'd have to sacrifice an hour and you'd know everything. It was made for a younger, broader audience. Almost humorously, Bionicle was resurrected later, but the damage was done. The new Bionicle followed the trends of Hero Factory, lacking what made the original so great.

Perhaps you really can't have your cake and eat it too. All I know is that the EU, being a non-film universe, had the privilege of playing the hardcore market. The NuCanon appeals to everyone and thus sacrifices depth. It is an inherently degraded product.

 

Sorry but I think you are giving the EU to many props. A lot of it really was just a play off of the OT story just like TFA was. They didn't really even bother to bring in too many new ideas when they delved into the Old Republic era. They still needed their Emperor's who were ruling their Empire's. That were fighting the Jedi and the Republic even thousands of years into the past.

 

The Emperor ruling the Empire is a Bioware thing for TOR to attract mainstream audience gamers to their MMO. Exar Kun, Naga Sadow, Lord Kaan, the Krath--say what you will about these guys as characters (admittedly some of them had weak characterizations), but none of them were Palpatine 2.0 the way Snoke is.

 

Mind you, they eventually made the Sith Emperor an interesting nuanced character but almost no one knows that because they don't get heavily into the lore.

 

I really want to see them try to bridge the gap between the books, comics, video games, and the movies. I feel like if they were to do something like that then we would have a fully unified universe, sure, the more casual fan wouldn't really understand it, but I personally don't feel like they should. I feel like if you are a casual fan that you should be confused because trying to understand Star Wars or any series that has this amount of lore built into it without having read or seen any of the existing lore is like trying to pass a class by only taking the tests and not doing the homework.

 

Oh certainly agree especially about easter egg fodder. like I said initially, I don't want the cross medium stuff to just be cameos like Saw all the time. We can bring these characters in for more than just exposition and as much as I like keeping characters driven in their original medium i see no problem with having them be heavily featured in other mediums as well

I get what you are saying, but I think there are bound to be directors who can pull it off. I mean look at comic book adaptations. Donner likely did not read every Superman comic and yet he pulled off the best adaptation of the character to date. One of the biggest genres in film right now is adapting characters from the comic medium with decades of lore. I think a director could be bothered to read the Vader and aphra books and do a film with her as a main character. I mean the Russos likely brushed up on Captain Marvel for her role in Infinity War without having to have written comics before. I just don't see how shifting characters between mediums is much of a problem. More people getting to use them can be a good thing and give them more attention.

Aphra for instance has been in 2 comic runs now. Directors already have to do research for characters in other films now the SW people have the story group which will make that even easier

 

I feel like not having a crisscrossing series is actually hurting the creativity of the series, because they have to cater everything to the fans who only watch the movies, which means that as long as they continue to put the casuals first we can't get a truly connected universe that we should have, it be more like the MCU where they claim that everything is connected, but at the end of the day it isn't, and it probably should be. I mean they are all in the same galaxy so why shouldn't they interact from time to time in the movies. It would encourage casuals to go out and read the other stories that Disney has been putting out, which I think would actually be healthy for the series.

 

Oh don't even get me started on how disconnected the MCU is at this point. Agents of shield has just become Marvel's black sheep

 

Is Coulson still hiding his survival from the Avengers? If so--in the first season it was ok, but him continuing to do this 5 years on is just stretching it. Even Sherlock Holmes only faked his death for 3 years.

 

There are some connections but always one way. Like they got the helicarrier used in AOU

 

Specforce- I love your post and its basically whats happened with star wars neu to an extent.

jamming jedi- It's true, the old EU wasn't perfect, heck I should know, I debated several inconsistencies, but overall it was good. I for the most part enjoy it and to just say it sucked is to slap the many fans here that invested a lot time, money, and love in getting their products. Has anyone seen Eddie1969's facebook post? His 37 pictures of his entire star wars collection? I'm almost also up there, and not everything is neu.....A lot of it is the old eu, which, despite its problems was not that bad. They were epic in scope that much I can say.

 

Short version MCU conundrum. TV references the movies (and TV shows reference each other), a small amount of movie characters have appeared (almost entirely on the Agents of SHIELD). Agents of SHIELD in particular has to make a lot of backflips to fit into the grand moves of the movies. Movies don't reference the TV, unless one reads between the lines / mentally retcons a few references.

Hell, Star Wars already has one up on them since literature and TV characters have appeared in different mediums, including the films.

That's a bad idea. We can see the connections because we read all this stuff but knowledge of critical plot points and characters in films shouldn't depend on the audience having done multi-media homework before they came into the theatre.

 

Except knowledge of multi-media homework was required before entering the theater in JJ Abrams' Star Trek 2009. I had to explain to 2 friends from China what the heck was going on, and 1 of them said the movie finally made sense after I handed her the Countdown prequel comic. And this movie was still a hit.

 

The Countdown comic is awesome and does flesh out the backstory but it's not required to view the film. They tell you everything that happens in Spock's mind meld sequence montage. It just happens really really fast but they didn't leave the critical information out.

 

Yeah 09 tells you everything you need to know to make the story function. Now to make it good countdown is needed cause they cut out every shred of character for Nero. Which sucks cause he could have been the best villain since Kruge

 

No one should need to do homework to watch a freaking Star Wars movie. At most, they should watch the previous films in that trilogy. That's all.

 

There's been two movies I can think of where "literature homework" was practically required. There's Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" which had a 6 part prequel comic and parts 7-9 are in the film. Had a critical drubbing and it was a notorious bomb. (Personal aside, I actually really love it and flat-out read the prequel comic / watched the movie). And a most recent example is "The Dark Tower" film which was a "sequel" to the novel series. It also had a critical drubbing and was a notorious bomb. (Didn't like the movie very much meself).

Point is, don't leave out important things to go into the film. But, by all means, feel free to flesh out the corners of the movies and elaborate on things, backstories and connective tissue. Like I'm going to go out on a limb that Captain Phasma is going to pop up in The Last Jedi with little or nothing how she escaped Starkiller Base but that's what the Captain Phasma comic is for! (and it's kind of awesome, lots explosions, attempted murder and monster fighting)

 

Certainly though here's the question does that exclude bringing in established eu characters as leads? Like does making sure people don't need homework effect a character like Aphra being used as a lead in a future film?

 

Not if we understand who she is from the movie alone.

I mean, Saw is established in R1 as an extremist Rebel leader. We don't need to know all the stuff with him in the CW, but it's nice to give context.

 

The movie has to be able to stand without EU works. Use Aphra, or Garm bel Iblis, or Waru - but have the film establish who they are in their own right.

 

This is why I don't see the appeal of TFA, because it pretty much explained nothing too and what little it did offer was just terrible, but it somehow managed to be a financial success.

 

My thoughts as well. I think we are all in agreement here. So yeah cinematic universe for SW is something I really don't want mainly cause having comics and shows and books count leads to great characters who can be used in the films as well. The synergy there can exist even if the casual viewer does not realize. i mean some fan who does not read the eu stuff who is watching RO might think that Jyn has been in like 50 issues and a novel after all we introduce her by talking about a larger history we do not see. So introducing Aphra would work the same way as introducing a character like Jyn without any actual background in other media

well said

 

Well Zeta there weren't a whole lot of people that wanted the movie to be how you wanted it to be.

 

It's something SW has been good at anyway. From ANH alone, we know a whole lot about the history of the galaxy just from a few background lines from Red Leader, Leia, and Obi-Wan.