Speculation Why the NJO and Legacy Era are toast.

So you want to run the risk of re-casting iconic characters? Mark, Carrie and Harrison (with the best will in the world, and superb makeup) wouldn't IMHO be able to lop 20 to 30 years off their actual ages.

 

I don't even know what they are.

Kill Chewbacca, Disney kill YOU.

UKS

 

Yes, the comics and games have some of the best SW design this side of the feature films. Lots of scope to do something different, not just rehash IV-VI.

 

I'm a major EU fan and I love Legacy but I think it is necessary to erase to 2 era. I love the idea of Ben and Jaina being the heroes.

 

you guys do know that its someone's job to keep all the continuity straight right? also episode 7 has been in pre production for a while under GL's supervision im pretty sure he already took the EU into account as he said that he takes place "50+ years" after ROTJ

 

We do, but this isn't the first time continuity has been sacrificed for the screen. And some top brass don't like post-RotJ stuff (Lucas, for example).

 

It is Leland Chee's job to put continuity together. He is not consulted as to what should take place in films/tv. He merely tries to put the pieces together after these things are done. Lucas does not write according to the EU, he merely takes elements that he likes.

Look at TCW for example. They used the nightsisters concept pretty heavily from The Courtship of Princess Leia, but the race and world of Dathomir are basically unrecognizable from their portrayal in the novel. This is probably the same kind of thing we will see in the ST.

Pablo Hidalgo is somewhat involved in this, so it is likely that there will be some semblance of continuity with the EU, but they will freely contradict it when expedient. If Han is in the film for example, I highly doubt that they would feature him without Chewie.

And nowhere did Lucas say that the ST takes place 50 years after ROTJ.

 

While I agree NJO is toast and I will mourn Legacy in particular, there are ways to do it if Lucas truly wanted (and I don't think for a moment he does).

First point: Legacy was set 100 years later and there was a nice gap between Ben and Kol that could be for any unnamed Skywalker son. Let's assume they don't want the big three but just want the Skywalker legacy? If so, there's the era. Maybe use Ben. Maybe don't. Depending on the age of this unnamed Skywalker, there may not need to be much said about the father if anything. Honestly, who once asked about Han's parents throughout the trilogy? Just make it clear he's a descendent of Luke's.

Additionally, there is nothing that says Luke didn't remarry and have another kid. John and Jan left that open enough. And since they never truly killed Luke, they could have Luke with his descendent. I actually think it's better if Mara is dead as it's harder to introduce her and explain everything. If she's dead and he's a widower, the focus shifts to him and his kid. And it's not like there aren't plenty of dead parents in this series. Shmi worked just fine with Anakin and we never even saw Bail or Breha for Leia until the prequels.

The Solo gap is harder. But also manageable. But Fate of the Jedi just has to go. I can't see salvaging that. As far as the dead kids, simple answer: Don't mention them. Just the Solos and Jaina. Obviously Allana might get sacrificed with this move, but again, worthwhile if we only lose Fate of the Jedi.

The Imperial Remnant can still be used if needed. Fel doesn't need to be a part of it. Assume we decanonize Fate of the Jedi and allow everything from Legacy of the Force to stay, then Del Rey or whatever publisher can fix it later to explain Jag and Allana's absence.

As to the Republic or whatever we want to call it, again don't need to mention a lot. Opening crawl can make a brief mention that there have been many struggles for our heroes and just keep it generic.

 

my bad i misread the article in the east valley tribune, a source at lucasfilm told the author that "a screenwriter and director have already been selected" and when he asked about the film being set 50 years or so after ROTJ he was told "think further out"


heres the article http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/movies/episode-vii-set-50-years-after-episode-vi-think-further-out-insider-hints/83421/

 

As I posted earlier in the thread on fears...

I remember Zahn saying at some point he'd like to write a 'family' story about the Skywalkers and in my mind that'd be very much what something like that would be like. Luke, Mara, and Ben roving the galaxy in the Jade Shadow. Funny that he hasn't done it, I mean most of Zahn's releases have been very close to the movies or within the Galactic Civil War and he's never written anything for the NJO or Legacy era... you don't think... He knows something? He did get some background from Lucas for a third trilogy when he was writing the Thrawn series.

 

He got a short list of "no nos" from GL for the Thrawn Trilogy. I'm willing to bet my immortal soul and firstborn child that Episode VII will not be about Luke, Mara and Ben "roving the galaxy in the Jade Shadow". Can you seriously imagine that being the big SW come-back movie?? He's out of the loop, as he's posted three times on his FB page.

Get Zahn out of your minds, fine pulp author though he is, he will probably not have anything whatsoever to do with EVII beyond the planet name "Coruscant". Addendum: he might write the novelization. That would be cool.

 

I said you set the movie 30-40 years after RotJ, how does that involve recasting? In 2015 RotJ will be 32 years old.....they'll be playing characters around the age they actually are.

ya, they mostly just clean up the mess Lucas leaves behind

 

They aren't throwing the markers away, they are just put in a different drawer.

 

i honestly dont think,even though most of you seem to, that disney is going to bulldoze the EU as it would be a pretty dick move on their part as it might potentially piss off a lot of hardcore fans first thing. the biggest error a company can make, in both common and business sense, it to alienate your core fan/customer base just to appease potential "clients" and sell toys; especially right after taking over.

 

Comic companies do this all the time. The fans get pissed off for a week, and then come back when the new product is put out (if anything, moves like this increase sales - the fans who have stopped reading generally come back when things are changes or rebooted)

Sticking to the EU and having to service it will hurt the movie product, which is the much bigger mis-step. Limiting what a filmmaker can do in a 100-150-200 million dollar movie (which gets added to the 4 billion they have to make back) because of a novel written in 1996 isn't the way a movie studio should or will run.

 

It doesn't work like that! See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_canon

And to cap it off, only the most recent releases of any of the movies are top-level canon.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ya......

 

here is what george lucas was talking about for books and movie wise prior to the post Return of the jedi

I am not saying that these books are going to be turned into movies but some elements of the eu might be in the movies. Lucas also played a minor role in the New Jedi Order by killing Chewie and Anakin solo.

Timothy Zahan also said some of his novels might have elements in the sequel trilogy.

 

I think it is easy to underestimate the power of retroactive continuity. You can explain the difference in dathomir by having it been Vongformed between clone wars and courtship of princess leia. In courship they set up dathomir as a place no one really knew about. I think there is very little episode 7 could do that would massivly ruin the EU and that couldn't possibly be explained away.

 

1. Luke never gets married.
2. Han and Leia have different children.
3. Chewie is alive.
4. No Thrawn, no Bantam era, no NJO etc. A different interim history.
5. Not using the title "New Republic".
6. Using names and characteristics of characters and planets but changing them in detail.
7. Adding new concepts that completely contradict the EU.
8. Tying it in with the PT and TCW where those already contradict EU.

Those are all on the table, and very likely might happen. We won't know for a long time; but they didn't say, "George wrote three treatments based on the EU." They said, "original story", probably a gentle heads-up as to what's coming next.

 

I think the Clone Wars is the greatest indicator of how this will be handled... They cherry pick ideas for characters, settings, and so forth but are more than willing to overwrite or contradict previous material... just look at the New Mandalorians for example. However, popular settings and elements are likely to be cherry picked for whatever we get for Episode VII. It might be even better then that since Lucas is now an adviser and can't really just veto something. Like using a Vibroblade instead of the dumb... darksaber.

I mean, yeah they completely changed the World of Mandalore but still used Karen Traviss's Mando'a language. Expect things like that.

 

http://theforce.net/latestnews/story/Disney_Buys_LFL_Timothy_Zahn_Talks_EU_Ep_7_148708.asp heres what timothy zahn says about episode 7!!

 

He is talking only about the Thrawn Trilogy though.

Lets say (for the sake of argument) that Lucas says - those original 3 books are part of the series but the rest of it...forget it. So you get Jacen and Jaina in Episode VII, but their whole lives c ould be completely different then what we've seen in the EU written after that series.

 

Meh, maybe they'll just pull a DC/Marvel and designate different universes for certain events.

 

true but I dont think Lucas wants to destory the eu. He has played some role in NJO and killed off chewbacca and anakin solo. He said in the video I showed that the books are now part of the saga! just not going to be actual sequel movies.

Hell Maybe lucasfilm and disney can turn the novels from the bantam era and NJo books into animated movies or animated T.V.shows!