Lucasfilm Makes It Official: Star Wars: Expanded Universe Is Dead

[Ratty]

Good-bye Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Zekk, Tenel Ka, Raynar, Mara Jade, Kyle, Kyp, Wraith Squadron, Rogue Squadron, Allana, Ben, Tahiri, Vestara (before Ben had a chance to end you), and so many other characters that I grew up with.

I don't care if this was the logical thing. I don't care if everyone saw it coming. I don't care if it was impossible to get the EU to work with the new movies. And I don't care that some of these character will probably be reworked into the new universe. This still makes me sad and a little upset.

I feel for you man. I really do. I've been there. I think just about every nerd who grows up cherishing some licensed property goes through this at some point or other in their lives. When the rights holders decide to hit the reset button, or change the series in some fundamental way, or the property just dies. And it's never easy to let go of something that was such a big part of your identity growing up. At least you still have the memories.

That's why I said "Thank God I don't care" I've been through that before, wouldn't want to do it again.

 

[Ldude893]

Eh, considering the divergent canon of J.J. Abram's Star Trek, I'm guessing from now they'll have the sequel trilogy and the EU set in alternate timelines from each other. They ARE going to produce more stuff for the EU, so honestly I think fans are overreacting.

I knew that the films were never going to copy itself after existing stories from the Star Wars EU, but I do expect them to pay homage to them.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Outside of a few video games I don't really have anything invested in the EU so I really don't care. Besides I figured this was what was going to happen anyway.

 

[otakon17]

I really don't see why this is a big deal.

So what, the extra stuff no longer match to one official fictional history. It's no like the stories fade from existance, they still exist and are still great.

Hell most of the best DC comics are Elseworlds. All Star Superman, Red Son, Kingdom Come, etc

Except that now they're no better than fanfiction, they've been disavowed.

 

[Ratty]

They ARE going to produce more stuff for the EU, so honestly I think fans are overreacting.

Well, that announcement is really vague, but they don't say they'll be making more stuff for the EU. Just that "Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner." and "While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe." i.e. the old canon is dead, but stuff from it that the people on the committee like and that doesn't conflict with the new movies could be brought into the new canon. And they're going to reprint old, now non-canon EU stuff under a gaiden label.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Eh, considering the divergent canon of J.J. Abram's Star Trek, I'm guessing from now they'll have the sequel trilogy and the EU set in alternate timelines from each other. They ARE going to produce more stuff for the EU, so honestly I think fans are overreacting.

I knew that the films were never going to copy itself after existing stories from the Star Wars EU, but I do expect them to pay homage to them.

Here the thing, when Abram rebooted Star Trek there was the admission that his entire series existed in a parallel reality, and that the rest of Star Trek was still canon.

This announcement didn't destroy the EU, the prequels did that, this was just salting the earth so no fandom would arise again.

The EU was a large part of childhood, more so than the films, I've since broken with the fandom and I'm not going back.
Abrams makes decent action films, fan worthy material is beyond his abilities.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I'm of two minds on this. There is some genuinely good material (Thrawn trilogy and X-Wing series come to mind) that happened between RotJ and the time period that Episode VII is taking place in. It'll be a shame if we end up losing all of it. On the other hand, I really dislike where things went later on (especially in the books after the Vong invasion), so it'll be nice getting the reset in for that.

Hopefully they'll at least do what Lucas did and cherry pick from the good stuff (Timothy Zahn was the one who named Coruscant in his books), and bring forward some of the more popular characters at least for cameo roles. It'd be a shame to lose the likes of Corran Horn and Kyle Katarn completely.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

As a massive Star Wars fan all I can say is, "Thank God." Seriously, the vast majority of material in the EU (especially after the original trilogy) is so terrible, it hurt me sometimes to read about this stuff. Sure, we will miss some stuff, like Kyle Katarn, but that is the price I am willing to pay to make the Yuuzhon Vong never happen.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Eh, I honestly stopped giving a crap about what's "canon" and what isn't ever since Force Unleashed came out and was declared as the "official story" that would link the prequels and the original trilogy. In short, I stopped caring about what was canon when I realized that they'll just declare something canon knowing full-well that it will encourage people to buy it, regardless of the quality. You fooled me once, Lucasarts, it shall not happen again.

Also, isn't discarding pretty much the only thing that's kept your franchise relevant for all these years (because we sure as hell know it wasn't the prequels) smack of shooting oneself in the foot? This would be like if Blizzard released Warcraft 4 and said "by the way, all that stuff that happened in WoW? It wasn't canon, so none of it counts." There would be a god damn riot at their front door before they were even done with the press release.

 

[CommanderL]

what people are mising the fact that disney is setting up a new eu with a few books set to be realesed in this new eu a new eu where everything is on the same cannon level everything in the old cannon will be rebranded as starwars legends and the authors will take stuff from the legends part of it and feed it into the main eu

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm not sure this was the best way to go about it. At the risk of sounding heretical, why not take a cue from Data here:

Spoiler

Instead of slaying it, why not treat pre-Disney, post-RotJ Star Wars EU as its own separate continuity like Star Trek did with its reboot? Treat it as its own divergent reality, where different decisions resulted in different outcomes. Done. Hell, the Star Wars EU has dabbled in "elseworlds" tales before with things like the Star Wars Infinities comics and games like Empire At War and the DLC for The Force Unleashed (and let's face it, that game felt like you were playing someone's fanfic anyway).

In any case, I always went by my own "head-canon," picking and choosing what I liked. Great stuff like Kyle Katarn, Thrawn and the Wraith Squadron books? Canon. Crap like Dark Empire and the Yuuzhan Vong? Non-canon. "Official" sources be damned, I'll ignore whatever the hell I want. It's all fiction anyway.

 

[Bat Vader]

I feel like this was a bad move on their part. The Expanded Universe would have been the smarter decision to go with since it is already basically prepared. All they would have had to do was adapt it to the big screen.

 

[KaZuYa]

Just make it the bad guy/girl finds the mask of Darth Nihilus and the most feared Sith Lord ever returns and il be happy =)

 

[Ishal]

So... Legit question, Is there going to be a colossal backlash from this?

I don't really know much about the Star Wars fandom. But, how big a deal is this? I mean, Dark Forces, Tie Fighter, and KOTOR II (yeah I know, not EU post movies, but still) are things I'll consider part of Star Wars regardless of what they do, even if it's fan fiction. With the screw ups in the prequels, it's indeed possible for fan fiction to be better than the official product.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Ya know what...I don't mind the Yuuzan Vong never existing and honestly I'm ecstatic that Cade Skywalker is no longer canonical. That being said though, I'm unclear about EU content taking place during the Luke trilogy and before the Anakin trilogy...Are people like Starkiller and, Darth Bane still canon? I can take-or-leave Starkiller but Bane and KotOR were my favorite bits of EU lore. I know there were a lot of Shadows of the Empire fans as well so where do they stand?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

We'll see Disney, we'll see.

If your movie and continuity is shit, the Expanded Universe will get plenty of support.

This is meant to be some big loss?

It is to the thousands of fans who have inexplicably dedicated a huge chunk of their lives to it. And they seem to hold themselves as the only people the movies should be made for. The diehards.

It's more than that.

The entire Disney buyout/Star Wars 7 thing was so utterly unexpected that it's perfectly reasonable for the (more than mere thousands) of fans to get invested in the EU.

Furthermore, the way they're going about it is simply disrespectful to the dozens of very talented writers that put large portions of their lives into making the EU a quality continuity.

I'm not saying I actually expected them to try and follow relatively obscure books, it would just be nice if they weren't so dismissive about it. It stinks of profit over investment in fans.

 

[wulfy42]

None of the movies official stories have been as good as timothy Zhans books...so I really don't care. Those are the official ones for me.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Lucas doesn't call the shots anymore and it was already stated that Rebel Alliance did NOT form the way it was shown to in TFU.

He made it so, before Disney bought Star Wars. And since he did say so, it overwrites any explanation offered by the EU.

 

[Something Amyss]

The entire Disney buyout/Star Wars 7 thing was so utterly unexpected that it's perfectly reasonable for the (more than mere thousands) of fans to get invested in the EU.

Why?

Furthermore, the way they're going about it is simply disrespectful to the dozens of very talented writers that put large portions of their lives into making the EU a quality continuity.

Is it any more disrespectful than rewriting the canon every few years as Lucas has done?

I'm not saying I actually expected them to try and follow relatively obscure books, it would just be nice if they weren't so dismissive about it. It stinks of profit over investment in fans.

I think you're inferring more than anything else.