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

[Oroboros]

For the fans, cannon is what they want it to be. If anything Disney are retarded to not dip into all those EU characters and stories. Now if SW7 sucks arse originality wise then they will look worse off.

I seriously don't see how people didn't see this coming. They chose a director that already stuck his shit covered hands in one great science fiction franchise, and now they gave him the other giant chunk of sci-fi to tear the hell up.

JJ Abrams borked up the Star Trek franchise and now he's moved onto Star Wars. I just happen to be an unlucky person that I love both franchises.

I have a feeling that this is happening because they've given Abrams a large part of control of this, then he heard that the EU was something that Star Wars fans loved, so he said, "Oh they love that, then we've got to get rid of that." He probably was afraid it would get in the way of his "creativity" and "vision".

The man is like a plague on sci-fi, whatever he touches, gets sick, turns black, and falls to bits.

With my luck as a fan of a lot of science fiction franchises, I'm just waiting that after Abrams rampages through Star Wars, stamping it out, I'm going to hear he is doing a "re-imagining" of the Stargate franchise.

Though, I don't know how much more damage he can do to Stargate, since whoever got a hold of it at "SyFy" already took a wrecking ball to the franchise by making Stargate Universe(which made them cancel the Atlantis series for it, and when it failed, got the planned Atlantis movie production pulled), but I'm willing to bet Abrams will be more than happy to come along and beat a dead horse into smaller bits.

Well glad I wasted a bunch of my time. Now I know how Star Trek fans feel about their franchise on being two movies.

I'm feel you are talking about JJ Abrams and his Star Trek movies right(as they changed Star Trek canon by becoming a core part of the Star Trek MMO). Yup, he is quite the villain isn't he. I feel the pain all around. The man is a menace to lovers of science fiction, and as I a said above, I'm willing to bet he had a hand in saying that the EU of Star Wars isn't canon now.

Gosh, I hope his franchise murder spree stops before he reaches the likes of Stargate and Babylon 5. What he did to Trek (and almost certainly what's going to happen to Star Wars) is bad enough.

And yeah...the MMO. A lot of people seem to think that this isn't really going to change anything. I say "look at all the trenchcoat-wearing, tattooed Romulans running around in Star Trek Online". I think it's a safe bet that NuTrek will reinvent Star Wars on a similar level. And it will effect the novels and video games that follow. We aren't going to get a new trek game with Romulans as the same kind of sneaky jerks with bowlcuts because JJ blew up their planet and remade them into emo skinhead bikers. Likewise we are unlikely to get a new Jedi Academy game because JJ's Star Wars is unlikely to accommodate such post-RoTJ material. Heck, he might even decide to do something 'dramatic' by killing off a main (or even tertiary character). What will the future of the Rogue Squadron games be if JJ decides to kill of Wedge for cheap thrills like he blew up Vulcan or Romulus? What if he decides to kill off Lando, or someone like Luke?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

This really doesn't surprise me that much, now with JJ at the helm of the new Star Wars movies. Supposedly he left the NuTrek movies over merchandising rights-he was opposed to the idea of pre-NuTrek products being sold alongside and thus competing with NuTrek merchandise. He wanted to be the sole voice on Trek, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he'd demand that he be the sole authority on NuWars canon. Guy's just got too big a head to tolerate other folk infringing on his artistic vision.

On the one hand, this gives me a huge sigh of relief because the EU's no longer so huge and bloated with an all-inclusive canon and makes it easier to pick and choose things I like and ignore what I don't-since it's all essentially equally non-canon. (excepting whatever fanboy dross that JJ shoehorns in like he did in the first two NuTrek films). This means I no longer have to deal with that 'no canon darkside endings' garbage policy Lucas had for the video games, and can more easily ignore TOR.

On the other hand, that effectively closes the door on a lot of things I liked about the EU. All the nice starfighter additions (wouldn't be surprised if stuff like E-wings and TIE-defenders etc don't appear in the new movies) and of course a lot of the post-RoTJ stuff like the Jedi Knight/Jedi Academy games got another nail in their coffins.

That's exactly my thinking. There is no way Abrams didn't have a hand in pulling the plug on the Star Wars EU. The man loves to ignore what came before and say, "my vision is now canon." I seriously believe the man gets a sick pleasure from purposefully giving a middle finger to fans and of major franchises and say, "oh you like that, well it isn't part of my vision so it isn't important/or doesn't exist now."

He is of the style of people I can't stand. People that don't understand what is important about franchises and what makes them extremely popular and now an iconic part of culture.

Now, I didn't hear that he fully left working on Star Trek. Hmm, I know Abrams has horribly injured and disfigured the Star Trek franchise with his films, but maybe, just maybe we can find a saint of a person to swoop in and heal the wounds and maybe excise the cancerous tumor that is Abrams' "Trek" films, to deem them non-canon, and then get the franchise running back to normal, maybe get a great new TV series that is on par with TNG and DS9, in the proper canon universe.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

snip

We aren't going to get a new trek game with Romulans as the same kind of sneaky jerks with bowlcuts because JJ blew up their planet and remade them into emo skinhead bikers.

Seriously, I know I'm a glutton for punishment and a bit too hopeful. But really all whoever owns Trek now has to do is come out and say Abrams storyline is a mistake and retcon it.

I know they are the ones that are guiding the Star Trek MMO, but it wouldn't be too hard to rewrite the game to get rid of Abrams work, it might take a couple years and a big expansion, but hey, it is possible. If any newbies to Star Trek whine, we can tell them to get with the program because we are restoring Star Trek to it's former glory.

Hey, I like STO, but only because I ignore any story points that heavily point out Abrams work, and I also have my characters wear classic TNG movie uniforms.

 

[Jeremy Meadows]

And that's pretty much the nail in the coffin for me to NOT see these movies. Not because I'm so fixated on a particular EU storyline that I wanted it in the movie, It's because this was a amazing opportunity to set up something completely new, different, and exciting for the star wars franchise. They could have gone so far into the future or like the KOTOR did and go into the long distant past that they could bring in anything they wanted. But because this is fucking Hollywood they said, "Think outside our little box? Perish the thought! Time to ring up all the old factors to get nostalgia from all those nerds who love throwing their money at us." And this is all I'm seeing out of this.

JJ is a glorified fanboy who can't actually direct but because he's a nerd everyone loves him. Everyone is getting excited for the "Return of Han solo" which in reality it's kinda sad that they have to drag him or anyone else into this. Nerds need to stop running off their nostalgia factor alone for judging if something is going to be good, because it's killing everything.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It was always dead to me in the first place. Never thought of it as anything other than fan fiction.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I get the why, but it still feels like this is a middle finger to the fans that have been keeping Star Wars alive by consuming all of the media released to the Expanded Universe. Some of the stories weren't great, sure, but more than half of the actual Star Wars films are also less than mediocre.

I'm not saying that Star Wars needed to be kept alive through the EU, the franchise's marketability practically prints money, but I really feel like this is going to ostracize certain fans even further from the new trilogy, but maybe they'd given up on getting those people anyway. But re-purposing certain characters seems like a stupid idea - either sever the EU completely or not at all. I'd rather not see Abrams' take on Thrawn after seeing how he and his crew handled Khan.

 

[Sewer Rat]

I really don't understand Star Wars fans feeling like they, "Wasted their time." If you enjoyed the books, who cares, you had a good time. If you didn't enjoy the books, well A. you should have stopped sooner, and B. You should be glad they are no longer part of the continuity.
Most of the EU was crap anyway, so really nothing of value was lost.
Yes, it lost the Thrawn trilogy, but it also lost Luke Skywalker saves space whales (yes, that is a thing).

 

[Atmos Duality]

Back in my day, kids weren't so stupid to believe that stories in comics & movies happened in a "universe". Settings were identity and the notion of a shared setting hardly of any importance. I guess fanboys nowadays need to hold the idea that somewhere, really, those events really have happened.

Internal consistency is important in any story; if things can just happen for no reason than the entire point of hypothesizing is lost.

^Bingo.
Internal Consistency is important for any story; fantastical or otherwise and not just some silly thing that only nerds harp on to be pedantic.

When one changes canonicity of anything, they're changing the internal logic.
Change it too often, and any notion of consistency is lost. Without consistency, there's no tension or closure.
Why get invested in any story without tension or closure?

Meaning: If a creator wants to declare something non-canon or retcon, they had better have a damn good reason: One that is better than "Because it's convenient for me."

Sadly, "convenience" is exactly the reason Disney is throwing out the entire expanded universe (and not just the parts they can't resolve in production). Now, I don't doubt that Disney is going to launch a "New EU" because they'd have to be stupid not to; there's a tremendous amount of money to be made there.

Yet, I'm not going to bother getting invested again.
If internal consistency is something Disney (or any creator) is willing to discard for the whim of their shareholders, well, good for them but new sources of revenue and higher profit margins for Disney are not the reason I got invested in Star Wars to begin with.

It might be interesting, it might be shite. Regardless, I'm staying far away.
(though with Abrams at the helm, I'm not confident at all)

 

[katana-409]

I'm torn. On one hand, I absolutely despised the new Jedi Order, and that one book where Han Solo fought off zombies (sorry, "DEATH TROOPERS.") On the other hand, CADE SKYWALKER WAS AWESOME >.<

 

[Sewer Rat]

Back in my day, kids weren't so stupid to believe that stories in comics & movies happened in a "universe". Settings were identity and the notion of a shared setting hardly of any importance. I guess fanboys nowadays need to hold the idea that somewhere, really, those events really have happened.

Internal consistency is important in any story; if things can just happen for no reason than the entire point of hypothesizing is lost.

^Bingo.
Internal Consistency is important for any story; fantastical or otherwise and not just some silly thing that only nerds harp on to be pedantic.

Trouble is, Star Wars had no consistency as it was. From technology inexplicably getting worse between the prequels and the original trilogy, Jabba the Hutt being presented as a seemingly completely different character in Episode 4 when compared to episode 6, conflicting novels that vary in tone and quality written by scores of different authors, the Star Wars continuity was nothing but a clusterfuck of retcons and contradictions. The best thing that could have been done to make the world consistent would be to throw it all out and start from scratch.
If a painting is a mess you don't clean it up by throwing more paint at it and hoping for the best, you start a new one.

 

[sumanoskae]

Honestly...good!
The extended universe was really nothing more than glorified fan fiction and wasn't really all that great anyway. Ever since I heard that episode VII was going to happen I was hoping the EU would get re-written, even if that means another 3 movies on the same level as the prequels.

I have to ask, have you read and/or played any of the EU material?

I'm not sure what games count towards the EU material other than Jedi Academy so I'm going to say no in terms of games.
Books, I have read quite a few of some years back. I remember really liking them at first but I started to dislike them the more I read. To me the books read like fanfiction, which ended up putting me off them.

To Disney and Lucas Films, "EU" is "Everything besides the movies and the Clone Wars animated series"; so no KOTOR, no Jedi Knight, no nothing.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you; the EU has done more for the Star Wars universe than the films ever did. I would remind you that almost everything we know about Star Wars has been affected by the EU; the code of the Sith; the forms of lightsaber combat; the origin of the Jedi order; even Palpatine's plan to dominate the galaxy originates in the EU.

The films show a comparatively small portion of the galaxy, and what I've read of the EU is better than the movies. A "Fanfic" just means "A work of fiction set within an established universe not sanctioned by the original creator"; it's not synonymous with bad writing; it's not an insult.

If you're interested in seeing an example, I can personally attest to the quality of the Darth Bane trilogy, which has more to say about the dark side than the entire film series put together; it treats the Sith like human beings instead of super villains. Even if that doesn't do it for you, there are countless EU books, not all of them good, obviously, but I don't see why that's a reason to dismiss them entirely.

I think Disney is underestimating just how much of the Star Wars universe they are effectively trying to blink out of existence; even the Clone Wars series has adopted aspects of the expanded universe. They're not making the cannon simpler by relying solely on the films, they're just making it nonsensical. A lot of the EU has been dedicated to cleaning up the mess that the prequels made of the continuity. I would understand their need to retcon certain details of the EU, but dismissing the whole thing is overkill, especially when lots of it would make for good movies.

Further more, there is nothing in the EU that makes it impossible to just ignore specific works that take place after the movies, lots of it has almost nothing to do with them; you don't need to deprive the setting of so much of it's context to change it up for the new trilogy.

 

[Kyrinn]

Honestly...good!
The extended universe was really nothing more than glorified fan fiction and wasn't really all that great anyway. Ever since I heard that episode VII was going to happen I was hoping the EU would get re-written, even if that means another 3 movies on the same level as the prequels.

I have to ask, have you read and/or played any of the EU material?

I'm not sure what games count towards the EU material other than Jedi Academy so I'm going to say no in terms of games.
Books, I have read quite a few of some years back. I remember really liking them at first but I started to dislike them the more I read. To me the books read like fanfiction, which ended up putting me off them.

To Disney and Lucas Films, "EU" is "Everything besides the movies and the Clone Wars animated series"; so no KOTOR, no Jedi Knight, no nothing.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you; the EU has done more for the Star Wars universe than the films ever did. I would remind you that almost everything we know about Star Wars has been affected by the EU; the code of the Sith; the forms of lightsaber combat; the origin of the Jedi order; even Palpatine's plan to dominate the galaxy originates in the EU.

The films show a comparatively small portion of the galaxy, and what I've read of the EU is better than the movies. A "Fanfic" just means "A work of fiction set within an established universe not sanctioned by the original creator"; it's not synonymous with bad writing; it's not an insult.

If you're interested in seeing an example, I can personally attest to the quality of the Darth Bane trilogy, which has more to say about the dark side than the entire film series put together; it treats the Sith like human beings instead of super villains. Even if that doesn't do it for you, there are countless EU books, not all of them good, obviously, but I don't see why that's a reason to dismiss them entirely.

I think Disney is underestimating just how much of the Star Wars universe they are effectively trying to blink out of existence; even the Clone Wars series has adopted aspects of the expanded universe. They're not making the cannon simpler by relying solely on the films, they're just making it nonsensical. A lot of the EU has been dedicated to cleaning up the mess that the prequels made of the continuity. I would understand their need to retcon certain details of the EU, but dismissing the whole thing is overkill, especially when lots of it would make for good movies.

Further more, there is nothing in the EU that makes it impossible to just ignore specific works that take place after the movies, lots of it has almost nothing to do with them; you don't need to deprive the setting of so much of it's context to change it up for the new trilogy.

Ah I see. In that case I'm familiar with quite a lot of the EU and indeed enjoyed it and what it added to the Star Wars lore. I guess my disdain for the EU comes from the books that were written as sequels to Episode 6. That's what I thought was being called non-canon here. If everything else is being remove from canon then I'm against it because that is basically saying the majority of the known Star Wars universe no longer means anything.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Trouble is, Star Wars had no consistency as it was. From technology inexplicably getting worse between the prequels and the original trilogy, Jabba the Hutt being presented as a seemingly completely different character in Episode 4 when compared to episode 6, conflicting novels that vary in tone and quality written by scores of different authors, the Star Wars continuity was nothing but a clusterfuck of retcons and contradictions.

There was a fair bit of mess, but not all of it was a clusterfuck.

...Well, at least until the New Jedi Order and Yuuzan Vong crap.
That's the point where it got too ridiculous for me to take, and where I stopped picking up the novels.

Some of the comics for stuff like Rogue Squadron, Crimson Empire and the like still hit the right notes though, and it just -felt- right and even had some subtle, but effective continuity between them. It felt like the original movies; a space adventure serial.

The best thing that could have been done to make the world consistent would be to throw it all out and start from scratch.

That was actually the way I felt after the prequels ended.
Right now; I'd be happy if they just shit canned Episode 7 and let the whole thing be.
With Abrams at the helm, well, I saw what he did to Star Trek, and love or hate it, that was Star Trek in name only.

 

[Something Amyss]

...Because no new Star Wars stories were imagined to be coming out and people wanted to see the story continue. You take what you can get.

But invested?

Seriously, I've been reading Star Wars novels since before most of the Escapist users were born. I cut my teeth on Star Wars on Vinyl[footnote]Hipster though that may sound[/footnote], because home video services were still largely a novelty when I was a kid. I started playing the Star Wars RPG from WEG way back, too. Hell, I've created my own stories within the Star Wars universe for use playing said games.

I'm still not getting the "invested" part. Episodes 1-3 screwed up half of my campaigns. Episodes 7 and beyond may do more. They will also mess up my source material. Oh well.

In some ways no, but it's still on a larger scale and it's still an action Lucas was nice enough to never take.

It's the same step, he just wasn't as overt. Ir's probably a kindness to just out and out do it, so people don't say "b-b-b-but in the books..."

Which is really weird in the first place.

To be honest, I think Bob could have done a better job representing what Lucasfilm had to say.

Fair enough, though a rule of thumb is to take what Bob says with a grain of salt and scale it back about four notches. I mean, I always feel hesitant to say these things, because I don't want to come off like I hate Bob, but part of enjoying his work is understanding that he can get more hyperbolic than Good Ole Jim Ross.

...God, how many wrestling references am I going to make today?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

...Because no new Star Wars stories were imagined to be coming out and people wanted to see the story continue. You take what you can get.

But invested?

Seriously, I've been reading Star Wars novels since before most of the Escapist users were born. I cut my teeth on Star Wars on Vinyl[footnote]Hipster though that may sound[/footnote], because home video services were still largely a novelty when I was a kid. I started playing the Star Wars RPG from WEG way back, too. Hell, I've created my own stories within the Star Wars universe for use playing said games.

I'm still not getting the "invested" part. Episodes 1-3 screwed up half of my campaigns. Episodes 7 and beyond may do more. They will also mess up my source material. Oh well.

Your lack of investment doesn't mean others weren't and aren't invested regardless of how involved in Star Wars you were.

[quote/]

In some ways no, but it's still on a larger scale and it's still an action Lucas was nice enough to never take.

It's the same step, he just wasn't as overt. Ir's probably a kindness to just out and out do it, so people don't say "b-b-b-but in the books..."

Which is really weird in the first place.
[/quote]
There's really not much to say here beyond the fact that I disagree. The small bit of entirely enjoyable debating that went on as a result of Lucas' actions was far and away better than just throwing it out. Lucas was willing to let it exist anywhere it could. He would override it, sure, but this is different.

[quote/]

To be honest, I think Bob could have done a better job representing what Lucasfilm had to say.

Fair enough, though a rule of thumb is to take what Bob says with a grain of salt and scale it back about four notches. I mean, I always feel hesitant to say these things, because I don't want to come off like I hate Bob, but part of enjoying his work is understanding that he can get more hyperbolic than Good Ole Jim Ross.[/quote]
This I can agree with wholeheartedly.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Don't care, the EU is still Star Wars to me. Won't pay the new trilogy any mind until it produces one story half as good as the NJO or the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

[punipunipyo]

wait... wha? does this mean no Kyle Katarn? He'd be the ONLY reason I'd go watch SW7! I don't need to see Luke or Han... I don't need to see random new heroes... I want to see the Renaissance of the Jedi, Jedi Academy, and all seven+ forms of sabers... hell... I think they should make a Jedi Academy TV show... that is like Harry Potter... but Jedi!~ that would TOTALLY rock!~

 

[Unspoken_Request]

Since the prequels, my emotional attachment to the SW universe has diminished considerably. Still, it would be very sad if Dysney did not at least keep the major plot points/character developments events from Zahn's novels. Yet, that entails disentangling the good stuff from the mess left by others...


Thank god I am more of a Tolkien fan! His Universe remains pristine due to the limit imposed by the Estate on its commercialization.

 

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Yeah it's frustrating to see them giving the boot to everything post-Jedi, especially after both that video they released and considering the time period Abrams wants to set the new movies isn't that far off where the latest books ended.

Sure not everything post-Jedi has been good but then given all the material in post-Jedi EU that can be expected. But I doubt anyone here would argue that some like the Thrawn Trilogy is anything less that great. Hell while I'm not a fan of much beyond the Yuuzhan Vong war, where that last big series, Fate of the Jedi, ended is an interesting time and could have provided a whole lot of fodder for the movies.

Then again these movies are from the same guy who created the mess known as Star Trek Into Darkness so maybe its for the better that he doesn't get his hands on the EU. If he did Thrawn like he did Khan from Star Trek I think it probably would kill Star Wars for me.