Lit Lostworlds & Lost Words: Cancelled Media

Hi all. I've recently started getting really interested in the Lostworlds stuff, i.e. cancelled books, comic, etc., and I thought I'd start a thread to talk about any Lostworlds-related stuff. For those of you who don't know what Lostworlds are, you can look at this link from Joe Bongiorno's Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline. Some of the more famous entries into Lostworlds are the Knightfall trilogy, The Heart of the Jedi, Escape from Dagu, Lightsider and Blood Oath, as well as Joe Bongiorno's "Encounters" pieces. I am working on making a couple of documents about the Lostworlds and Lost Words, so I thought I'd make this thread. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a link to some covers I made of the Knightfall trilogy, using the cover art and other NJO covers for reference. You can find them here.

 

Would the never-released(due to WEG going out of business) Rogue Squadron Sourcebook and Lando Calrissian And the Centrality Sourcebook count for the purposes of the thread? I still mourn their loss, to this day...

Edit: Never mind, I just found them in the link you've provided. But I really want them so bad, especially the Lando book.

 

Hi Nom. Those two sourcebooks do count. In fact, I have found a few additional things related to the X-wing Rogue Squadron sourcebook. If you search "star wars x wing rogue squadron sourcebook" on Google you should see the cover image as one of the results. I also found this on Scribd. If you have a Scribd account, you should be able to view it. Otherwise, I have downloaded it, so I should probably upload it to my Drive. I don't know if its official or not, though. Who knows?

 

Just finished making a cover for the Lando Calrissian Adventures Sourcebook. You can find it here. Sorry, Nom von Anor, but it's not real. I've also made a cover for Mandorla, the cancelled Tales of the Jedi novel that was to be written by Alex Irvine. You can find it here. I'm just finishing making a cover for Dark Tide II: Siege. For those who don't know, the NJO duology Dark Tide was originally meant to be a trilogy, featuring Onslaught, Siege and Ruin. Siege was cancelled, and its content was added into the two other Dark Tide books, making Agents of Chaos a duology, instead of one book, as originally planned. I'll post it when it's finished.

 

I think that Mandorla is one of the novels I wish most would have come out. The Old Republic (specifically, TOTJ through to KOTOR2) is my home.

 

The Sword of the Jedi trilogy is the loss that I mourn the most. I love Jaina Solo as a character and I really wanted to see the Sword of the Jedi prophecy come to fruition. I also just wanted a better conclusion to the EU continuity than what we got with Crucible. Mandorla is number two. A Nomi Sunrider novel could have been super interesting.

Anyone ever hear of Alien Exodus? It was supposed to be a trilogy of EU books written by Robert J. Sawyer that would have explained how humans traveled from Earth to the GFFA. He would have apparently touched on the origins of the Force, the Skywalker name, and linked Lucas's other films American Graffiti and THX 1138 with Star Wars continuity. There's actually a bunch of information about it, including two chapters and an outline of book one.

I can't say I'm sad it never happened, partly because I don't like the idea of linking Earth to the GFFA and partly because I'm not a big fan of Sawyer's writing, but it's certainly an interesting project.

 

You might is also like to know (or not know, as it was cancelled) that there was a KOTOR III in production. Some of the concept art has surfaced in Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, as well as concept art for a host of cancelled videogames, including Imperial Commando.

I am currently reading through and editing spelling/punctuation, just for a cool Alternate Universe read. I think it's a pretty cool story. I do quite like the references to other Lucas works. One of the main characters is not only a descendant of one of the AG characters, but he's also the first person to bare the title of "THX." Oh, and of course. RIP Sword of the Jedi. Probably one of the losses that everyone wants back. At least there's still this. The thing I'm really annoyed about with Sword of the Jedi is that it wasn't cancelled because of continuity changes like the sequel to 501st, shift of interest like Escape from Dagu or late manuscript like Blood Oath. It was only because of the Disney merger. Plus, some of the other cancelled media at least was referenced in other works, like Escape from Dagu in the Official Fact File and Holonet, or Sageon and Bridger from The Essential Guide to Episode I and The Clone Wars Sourcebook in one of Abel's pieces, but Sword of the Jedi couldn't because it was cancelled because of the merger and not for any other reason. Well, there's always still the fan-fic versions on FanFiction.net.

 

* eats popcorn and reads some Lostworlds never released SW books he is sitting on thx to nice authors* Interesting topic...

While there are several websites listing these Lostworlds, what is missing is listing how Lostworlds content has found its way into other works. Like the cancelled Essential Guide to Episode 1 got stuff that resurfaced in other books as per authors! Same for Blood Oath elements being put into post-Blood Oath books even if not the full story.

And more obscure, lots of lost plot ideas from cancelled projects were recycled into other eras, for other characters. No idea goes to waste. Especially those cut due to Disney merger. But you'd probably not even recognise which originally was supposed to be elsewhere with what Legends characters. Some clever fans found hints and made educated guesses though!

Story Archeology is kind of my thing

PS: A full listing including what details resurfaced or got recycled elsewhere would be neat, even if some stuff is harder to confirm and figure out. Likewise a guide to retcons is probably overkill, listing for each book, comic, source, etc. what retcons exist so you can read old stories with all in mind, for those not fluent in all retcons! Well overkill but so was the Atlas once and it happened!

 

Mandorla! That loss gets me.

 

Episode 7.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_VII:_Shadows_of_the_Sith

As a video game. I think it would have been really cool and at the high point of Star Wars and video games.

 

Why do I have the weird feeling Ben would have discovered his mums parentage in that one and realized he is descended from both, Skywalker and Palpatine! Mara Jade is the Emperors daughter? granddaughter?


I mourn the loss of this epic thing... at least some of it ended up in Crackens Threat Dossier book!
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Courtship_of_Princess_Leia_Sourcebook

These two would have been pure gold... more YJK in their own pre-JJK era!
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Fairy_Tales:_Jaina_and_the_Hanadak
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Fairy_Tales:_The_Twins_and_the_Taloden

 

I'd be cool with that, it would make Palpatines relationship with Mara less creepy if she was his granddaughter.

 

Something that I'm noticing is missing from Bongiorno's list are cancelled ongoing comics. Legacy (both volumes), Invasion, and I think Dark Times were all unfinished with only Legacy getting endings, if I recall correctly. Presumably there were comic arcs planned out after each volume's final issue, but I don't know if there's concrete information about any of them.

 

I thought I'd post some links to some Lostworlds-related stuff. There's still some thinks I have to dig out, but these are the ones I could find. The Heart of the Jedi - Unpublished novel by Kenneth C. Flint. Edited by Joe Bongiorno (PDF). The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal #16, #17, #18. Unpublished roleplaying magazines by various creators. Adventures in Hyperspace: The Big Switch - Unpublished Scholastic novel by Ryder Windham. Adventures in Hyperspace: The Last Blade Master - Synopsis of unwritten Scholastic novel by Ryder Windham. Cult Encounters of the Star Wars Universe - Unpublished Star Wars Gamer article by Joe Bongiorno and Rich Handley. Rewritten by Joe Bongiorno. Supernatural Encounters of the Star Wars Universe - Unpublished Star Wars Gamer article by Joe Bongiorno. Rewritten by Joe Bongiorno. Star Wars: Dark Force Rising - Unpublished adaptation of Dark Force Rising. Art by Gil Kane. Inks by Kevin Nowlan. There's also quite a lot of cover art that's surfaced. If you search on Wookieepedia for "Knigtfall Trilogy" you'll be able to see the covers for the Knightfall books. The same goes for "Escape from Dagu," "Blood Oath" and (I think) a few others. Also, there's still Bungo n' Rusti, which can be found here. Supposed to appear in AJ, but cancelled because Dark Horse owned the sole license to the comics and they thought that the comic was just a one-shot, so they let the first one go through. Hope this info is good!

 

Small addition that may be new/of some interest: WEG was going to do a Corporate Sector boxed set. Some stuff got written for it, and there was a wonderful draft map ... which found a new life as the CSA map in The Essential Atlas.

 

Thanks! I seem to remember that being listed on a Lostworlds list somewhere. Oh, it was Joe Bongiorno's list. There are some links there. I'll take a look.

 

Forgot to actually put it in the previous post. There's some stuff (as mentioned by Reepicheep) from Robert J. Sawyer's George Lucas' Monsters and Aliens. You can find the first two chapters of the first book here and an outline of the whole trilogy here.

 

To me this project and its idea is still canon... Alien Exodus uniting the Lucasverse and giving us the far future and ancient past at the same time is pure gold.. heck, circular time is the best concept. Gimme my 12 Monkeys Star Wars!!!

 

I think that Alien Exodus was a pretty cool idea. Due to its cross-references to THX 1138 and American Grafitti, I've added both of those films to this timeline. I know that AE doesn't work in Legends anymore, but I still like it as a story, even if it's Alternate Universe of Infinities or one of those other things. Rich Handley even commented about it!

 

A certain duology also comes to mind that I suppose would go into this list.

 

Excuse my ignorance but do you mean the untitled Paul S. Kemp duology?

 

I am sad that the internal "cancelled media list" of LFL is far longer than any we could ever compile... or ever even know about it all.

 

Yes that one.

And also yes Cole, you're correct. Though I'd hesitate to call much of that list "cancelled". To me, cancelled only denotes a project that was started (outline or manuscript stage) and then abandoned. Plenty of projects that get ideated and incubated a bit or explored, but never really make it past like a 1 page breakdown. I wouldn't call any of those cancelled, since that's how the ideation process works and has to work.

 

I thought I just post a bit of an update. I have some cool information and other stuff related to cancelled media, except I don't know exactly where I saved it. I'll post the things tomorrow (I'm sure I'll find the stuff by then). I thought I'd just put a heads-up.

 

Now that my memory's working a little better, my two Lostworlds. (Maybe there were others. The memory fades.)

I wrote a Backstories: Luke Skywalker for Scholastic. The book was completely done (selfish aside: I got paid) but the previous titles in the series hadn't sold, so into the Maybe Not pile it went.

And then there was the Episode II Expanded Visual Dictionary for DK, earmarked for the 3-D re-release that never happened. It never came out, as far as I knew, until I found out I was wrong and it had been published. Do you speak Danish?

Way back when, the cause celebre among folks mourning what had never been was a Tom Veitch project called Lightsider. I remember agonized posts on AOL message boards about that one.