Lit Star Wars novelizations - released before the movies?

Almost all of the Star Wars movie novelizations (except for RotJ, and maybe TESB?) were released before the movie was released on theaters. Why is that? Isn't this like releasing spoilers to the public?

 

Being an older fan, I do specifically remember that the ROTJ novelization (by James Khan, 1983) was definitely released to stores several weeks before the film hit theaters in mid/late May 1983. The ROTJ storybook (w/pictures), the ROTJ Marvel comic book adaptation, and some ROTJ action figures were also released before the film came out.

Not sure about the TESB novelization.

IIRC, the ANH novelization was released to bookstores in late 1976 (at least the publication date is December 1976), long before the film hit theaters in May 1977.

Yes, I would agree this is like releasing spoilers to the public. However, the way I see it, at the time you could choose whether or not you wanted to read the book. It's no different than the Internet; these days, you can find out the plot of a film long before it hits theaters if you want to - or, you could just choose to wait until you see the film & be genuinely surprised...

 

When the ROTJ novel was out I bought it and told myself I would not read it until after I saw the movie. So there it sat. I said I'd read the first page and stop. And it was awesome. So I said I'd read the first chapter and stop. And it was awesome. So I read the whole damn thing, spoiling myself for the film. TBH it ruiend nothing, it just made me wish to see the film even more.

 

In the case of ROTS, it wasn't so much spoilers, but setting unreasonably high expectations for the film that the film then failed to deliver.

 

Hell the ROTS video game had actual footage from the film in it before the film came out.

The ROTJ comic adaptation sucked though. Yoda doesn't even die in it. I guess back then they were wise to spoilers and kept stuff like that out even though it is somewhat insignificant to the plot.

 

i truly hope all the merchandise surrounding the film (at least comic book adaptations, novelizations, video games...) surrounding EP7 ewon't be released prior to the movie release date but on the same day the movie hits theaters. It jsut seems so much better like that to me.

 

You could get electroshock aversion therapy or something to prevent you from buying it if it does come out early, just to be safe.

 

If you hang out for any length of time online like some (most?!) of us do, there is very little chance that you will remain spoiler-free for Episode 7. There are already plot leaks out there if you look for them, and this will just increase as the release date for the film gets closer (December 2015). I guess you could stay away from the sites/news articles with spoilers in them, but it will be difficult...

I think it was slightly possible to remain somewhat spoiler-free back in the 6-8 months before Episode 1 was released; I remember getting my first dial-up (i.e., slow as he!!) Internet connection around October-November 1998, and from then to around May 1999 there were a lot of EP 1 spoilers on sites like this - however, the big difference was that it was so laborious to connect for most people at that time, so IMHO it was tougher to get info.

Conversely, these days everyone has a fast connection PLUS 24-hour news is a lot more prevalent, so we are literally getting news 24-7. Even if you try to remain spoiler-free, you can't help but notice the titles of news articles, and/or you will be channel surfing and may catch something on a news channel...

 

I can't wait to read the novel!

 

Can confirm that - I have a First Edition paperback of the novel and it has the Dec 1976 date on the copyright page. Can't remember when I actually bought it tho - I didn't realize I had a First til 2002!

 

All six novelizations have been released prior to the film's release.

I wonder how many people spoiled Vader being Luke's father in 1980 before anyone saw the movie.

 

No one knows. The spoilers dismembered corpses were never found.

Moe seriously, I'd want to know who is writing the novelisation before I consider reading it.

 

The other thing that made it easier to remain spoiler free was SuperShadow, because even if you did read "spoilers" they were 90% of the time total crock.

...so pretty much like Latino Review.

Maybe today isn't actually as different after all.

 

I remember reading SS before ROTS and it was dead on. Then there was a leaked script. It was hard to consider that spoilers though, since the seeds of ROTS were planted 30 years prior to it being filmed.

 

Yeah, I don't remember reading any spoilers about ROTS, but it wasn't tough to generally guess what was going to happen in the film. The fight at the lava pit between Anakin/Vader & Obi-wan was taken directly from the dialogue between Obi-wan and Luke in the ROTJ novelization by James Khan back in '83, though that dialogue didn't make it into the film....

 

Blur: not to mention that in 2005, Facebook existed but wasn't widespread, and most of today's social media didn't exist or were pretty obscure. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out this time. Rumors spread and burn out almost instantly now, instead of taking a couple of days to even make the rounds of the blogs, forums, and fan sites. With Facebook, Twitter, etc., it's going to be completely impossible to avoid getting serious spoilers shoved in your face as soon as you log on. (Think of Game of Thrones and Walking Dead episodes being spoiled while they're still airing.)

 

Extremely good points. It took me forever to get high-speed Internet, and in '05 I still had dial-up; I doubt I was the only one. So, for me the ROTS rumors weren't that much different than the TPM rumors back in '99. I.e., I still wasn't that plugged in online too much at that point....Now, it's so simple to click on an article and have it load in an instant, and, as you said, there are so many sites out there it's unbelievable....

 

If Matthew Stover writes the novelization, I will read it as soon as it comes out.

If John Jackson Miller writes the novelization, I will read it as soon as it comes out.

If Timothy Zahn writes the novelization, I will read it as soon as it comes out.

If James Luceno writes the novelization, I will read it as soon as it comes out.

If Michael A. Stackpole writes the novelization, I will read it as soon as it comes out.

Thank you.

 

Pre-internet spoilers happened from when things got officially published (by and large). You would get the odd leaked photo but in newspapers (The Sun in the UK was the first to leak the Batman costume in 1989 and boy did that kick up a stink - armour? Black?)

But, I had both ESB and ROTJ novelisations, poster mags, comics and various other bits and bobs a few weeks before each film. Star Wars itself doesn't count in the UK as it didn't open outside of London until 1978 so anything and everything was out by then (including Splinter of the Minds Eye).

For the prequels there were websites devoted to piecing together rumours in to something approaching coherent (anyone remember the virtual Star Wars?). I'm surprised some on here say they don't remember spoilers from ROTS because my recollection was having a major battle to avoid them. They seemed to be everywhere in those early days of the net. Abrams seems to be doing a far better job at keeping a lid on things.

 

I think the Episode VII novel will come out either just before the movie or after. JJA seems to like keeping his storylines secret. I wasn't planning on reading the book until after I'd seen the movie, so no big deal. I do hope that the Ep7 novel is like the PT novelizations, with added scenes, deleted scenes and extra detail!

 

If it comes out before the movie, I will read it.

If it comes out after the movie, and isn't by a favourite author, I will not buy it.

 

@Zorrixor Wow, really? I plan on remaining unspoiled. I don't think any of the story rumors that have surfaced so far are anywhere near the truth. But as soon as believable rumors start trickling down, I'll be going deaf/blind. The last movie I was spoiled for was AotC. Never again. I haven't been spoiled for a single movie since then and I've had a much better time at the movies! Trailers/commercials are all I'm doing for E7. Also, I'm a movie noveliztion fan. It's just a weird hobby of mine. I used to have an enormous collection of 'em with a lot of rarities but alas I had to sell that collection for food/rent money. But I still enjoy ripping through a novelization. Godzilla and Noah were both "good" lol. As I said - weird hobby

 

I'll read the novelization no matter who writes it, but not until after I see the movie.

 

Once the book comes out, all bets are off.