Lit Lucasfilm Writing Group

Okay, for several weeks now I have seen comments made about this special group that is suppose to decide what is going to be canon and what is not. I went along with the conversations on several threads but realized that I knew nothing of this and what this implies. In this aspect, I created this thread to get feedback as to what this group is and when did it start. Links are always welcomed, but what I am looking for is what is the true purpose of this group. By whom were the sanctioned by? Are they truly really going to decide what material is canon and what is not? What happens with all the material that is no longer canon? Does it go to the dump? If another thread has been created on this I apologize.

 

Well, there's no official announcement and no one out here has those answers. I believe the term was originated tweets from Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee mentioning they are being consulted about continuity and are part of said group.

 

We know quite a bit, but there is no official starwars.com article on it yet. Pablo Hidalgo first revealed its existence during a panel in Celebration Europe II last year. Later he and Leland Chee expanded on it in an interview on the October 4, 2012 edition of the Forcecast. I'll post clubjade.net's summary of it:

Pablo has further explained on what it does in various twitter postings, such as:

We've since learned a number of the members of the story group, some from official sources, others from the tweeterin' world:

Kiri Hart is the Development Lead of the Story Group.
Pablo Hidalgo, Brand Communications Manager
Leland Chee, Keeper of the Holocron
Carrie Beck, Creative Content Strategy
Diana Williams, Producer, Franchise Synergy

Hope that helps.

 

To further add to this, I can confirm that per summer 2013, Del Ray's reps at their SDCC booth (wish I had gotten a name) confirmed in a simple conversation with me that they were in fact having monthly meetings on the state of the franchise... meetings I suspect relate to the so called story group. This has been happening since at least last summer. They also seemed confident that their license would last for a few more years without risk of expiring.

 

More quotes on the Story Group, this time from Leland Chee:

- referring to this question: Are you implying that the goal is to dispose of the hierarchy and have one cohesive canon?

 

I think that this was more in line with what I was asking. Will the established EU with all its story be cut down or changed? In the end it doesn't matter for me since I will always think of the Vong, Grand Amiral Thrawn etc, but I am curious to know.

 

The first rule of Story Group is you do not talk about Story Group.

 

I see that Leland Chee will not be fixing the clone wars so that means we can watch or read anything in any direction we want.

 

In that case let's just say the war was six years and TCW starts at the beginning of the fourth. Okay that also creates a problem, but it makes things work decently.

 

I'm still forming my timeline on the basis of what they 'have' officially stated, but if nothing further is said, I'm probably pushing the old material up to filling the first year, and letting TCW fill the rest of it.

 

That's a good idea. Have you ever considered expanding the timeline like I mentioned? The way you'd divide things would probably still be the same. The only difference is that both series could extend over the same length of time that they were supppsed to. Granted this would mess up the timline , but we don't have much taking place in 23, 22, 18, and 17 BBY. So moving stuff around there wouldn't mess much up. Especially since the Rebellion doesn't really start until 3-2 BBY. Also, a longer timeline for the Clone Wars allows it to be even more destructive and painful. Okay so this is probably a bad idea, but I wanted to mention it.

 

I'm a little dismayed that they're going to create a single timeline thingamajig. For my money, the Ewoks TV movies/animated specials + comics and Droids happened, period, no matter what anyone says

 

Frankly I'm not concerned with what they decide. I have spent too much time and read too many good books for them to just stop "counting". I'm just concerned that they stop publishing them.

 

Yep, that's pretty much true for me as well.

I think the Story Group is going to demonstrate that constantly asking what would Lucas do in this situation? is going to be worse than actually having Lucas.

 

"Some just don't want to hear it. Canon is only what's on the screen - Episodes I-VI, TCW and what's to come."
Opinion noted.

 

Pablo why have you betrayed us?

 

Yeah, all the video games were on my screen. WHAT NOW PABLO?

 

Does anyone know which EU books are available for the Kindle? I need to know which ones are still canon.

 

In all seriousness, it strikes me as somewhat insincere on Pablo's part that he's clearly meaning to say that the films and TCW and Rebels are canon and nothing else is, but he's justifying it by saying that they're on the screen.

Well, what about the earlier Clone Wars animated series, the Ewok films, the Ewok and Droid animated series, and the Star Wars Holiday Special? They're what's on the screen so I guess they're canon.

Or is it "what's on screen that I don't pretend doesn't exist"?

 

No, no, no. We push TPM back to 42 BBY and make the Clone Wars TEN years.

Seriously, I'd be all for that. I'm big on event-and-character continuity, but I wouldn't really care if whenever "ten years ago" cropped up I had to substitute "twenty years ago", instead.

We basically already went through that kind of thing with TTT, anyway.

 

Oh, that would be even better! The Clone Wars really should be a huge conflict. The oy problem is we only have enough material for five to six years. Six might actually be pushing it. TCW only did 2 to 2.5 years, I think. But ten years would be so much better. Three years is pretty pathetic for a war that's supposed to be massive, like the Clone Wars are.

 

If the Clone Wars eventually end up anything like the six months following the Battle of Yavin, that won't be a problem.

 

I have a feeling that Disney is going to distance itself from the prequels.