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

[leviticusd]

I think I'm about as hard hit by this as anybody. I've read every single Star Wars novel since the Zahn trilogy came out in the early 90's. I'm pretty prepared for this and I've already promised to never utter to anybody the words "Well in the books..."

And while there are some characters and plot-lines I hoped would survive, I don't feel any ownership, so I can let it go. For me, a future without Han and Leia getting married and not having the twins will probably be the weirdest. They don't need to grow up and become the adults that they did...they can (and I hoped) they would change all that story, but they just need to exist for everything to seem normal in my mind.

I don't really feel like my time was wasted either. That storyline existed with Lucas...it died with the sale to Disney. There really wasn't much more story to tell anyways. If it's one thing movie trends has taught us is how to handle a reboot of a series...no real reason this would be much different. /shrug

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

This is meant to be some big loss? If you are going to make new Star Wars movies the absolute best thing to do is to ignore the expanded universe, and all the prior films and just make something new and unique. Of course, they aren't going to do this. They are going to cling to as much nostalgia as they can. Either way, no big loss. Who even wants to see these movies?

 

[TWEWYFan]

Yeah! I mean what good has Expanded Universe ever given us? Except the Thrawn Trilogy... and the X-Wing series... and Dark Forces... suddenly I feel sad.

 

[Absimilliard]

Soooo... the YouTube video (which was published today) are a bunch of Lucasfilm employees gushing for six minutes about how they love and cherish the Expanded Universe which they have discarded.

Got it.

My thoughts exactly.

I'm not really surprised, but still a bit disappointed and annoyed. At least they just ripped of the band-aid and cut the whole thing immediately, rather than cutting bits and chunks as the new films come in conflict with the EU.
And of course, now they can sell a lot of basically the same stories, only slightly updated to comply to the new canon. Yay...

But at least this shouldn't affect the Old Republic Era too much. And considering how much the MMO made, they probably won't mess too much with it.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

So Boba Fett is dead? Well FUCK YOU GUY!

Fuck you Geroge Lucas Films, fuck you!

 

[Something Amyss]

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if thousands of fanboys suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something TOTALLY AWESOME has happened."

Nah, just kidding with ya. But in honesty, saw this coming, as I'm sure many people have. Now I'm interested in the new trilogy.

More to the point, Lucas was doing this for years. At least now, in the Disney Era, we know what we're in for.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about the Yuuzhan Vong showing up.

That's what they WANT you to think!

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.

 

[Ukomba]

You'd think with the success of the marvel comics, they'd have learned not to trample on the most devoted fans. . I'd rather have anything made from 1999 to the present listed as non cannon. Insted, yes to prequels, no to thrawn... great.

If galen marek survives this too I'm out.

 

[Tiamat666]

So basically, all of the EU is gone. I figured it'd happen eventually.

Of course, this opens up a number of giant gaping continuity holes that they'll now have to either fill or ignore (my bets are on "ignore"), and it means that all of the good products produced by the EU (like the Thrawn trilogy) will never be converted into a movie format, which is a damn shame. But I expected nothing less.

Yeah, but that is weird. I mean, Admiral Thrawn even appeared in TIE Fighter! They can't just cut him out like he never happened. If you put something in TIE Fighter it stays in Star Wars, dammit!

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I don't care if they aren't "official" cannon, Dark Forces 1 and 2 hold soft spots in my heart.

Dark Forces 1 was the most innovative, polished, and immersive FPS of the sprite era. And Dark Forces 2 was a technological achievement for its time showing the world just how much potential hardware accelerated 3d graphics had. It didn't hurt that the games were fundamentally interesting and had good stories in themselves. Even the goofy full motion video was hilariously campy to watch.

Seriously check it out:

 

[Candidus]

Better yet: Just declare that every Star Wars movie, TV show, novel, comic book, and video game is a completely stand-alone story with no continuity with any other Star Wars storyline whatsoever.

Better still: every Star Wars movie, TV show, novel, comic book and video game is now LEGOS! They each have continuity with whichever other bits a given individual wants them to have continuity with. Every Star Wars fan now builds their own continuity!

OT: I'm not a Star Wars fan at all. I haven't seen all the movies and I don't know the first thing about the expanded universe besides KOTR 1+2, which I enjoyed as RPGs that just-so-happened to be Star Wars.

So this doesn't mean much to me. Nevertheless, I know the expanded universe was big business, and while its reputation was "a bloated monstrosity that runs the gamut from `worthy` to `awful fanfiction`", I render no judgement of my own. I only sympathise with anyone who feels like their favourite franchise was just eviscerated.

 

[Lhianon]

lets hope they lift a few good ideas from the EU; it was at times not even consistent from book to book (*cough* calista) so having some kind of committee that at least ensures that the continuity between the individual works is preserved doesn't seem to be the worst of all possible ideas.
it is highly likely that some of the favorite characters of an individual fan (in my case Thrawn, Daala, Pelaeon) may cease to exist in the new continuity, but on the other hand this doesn't delete the existing works, as was mentioned in the article, thoose will still be aviable.
i mean, jar jar bings is canon, from my point of view we now have 2 parallel universes, the jar-jar-verse and the EU

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Fans own SW, not the company. They will keep the EU alive because they believe in it.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

I stopped caring back when they declared KOTOR 2 non-cannon.

One of the best (hell I'd say THE best) Star Wars stories and they handwave it away. What a damn waste.

That's news to me. The main character in that game was in the book leading up to TOR, and TOR itself has Madalorians that are allied to the Republic and follow the ideas set out by Mandalore the Preserver (AKA What Canderous Ordo became after KOTOR 1).

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I am very glad that i am, at best, only a "casual" star wars user.

 

[Croquemitaine]

And while there are some characters and plot-lines I hoped would survive, I don't feel any ownership, so I can let it go.

This is really that attitude that fans of every succesful franchise need to adopt if they don't want to go crazy. Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr.Who, Firefly, Marvel, DC, you name it... they're all going to arbitrarily rewrite canon as it suits them. The sooner you can cut your emotional attachment to properties owned and controlled by corporate entities, the healthier and happier you will be.

This doesn't mean you can't enjoy any or all of a franchise's core and/or spinoff products. It just means you need to be prepared to have the rug pulled out at any given moment. Go ahead and build your own head-canon and continuity. You're the boss of your own imagination.

 

[Ratty]

Wait, you mean Ewoks [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Ewoks] is no longer canon?

What about Lumpy and Malla, they'll be ok right? Right?


Oh wait, thank God I don't care. After the betrayal that was Episode 1 - 3 I really don't. I'm just hoping the new movies won't make me cringe as much. Oh and, really, bring back the Ewoks. They were cute.

 

[DaWaffledude]

I stopped caring back when they declared KOTOR 2 non-cannon.

One of the best (hell I'd say THE best) Star Wars stories and they handwave it away. What a damn waste.

I'll argue against KotOR 2's story another time, but I'm pretty sure it never got declared non-canon.

 

[RealRT]

Oh shit! Thrawn, Corran Horn, Kyle Katarn, Revan and all the other good stuff is now gone!
Oh great! Force Zombies, The Force Unleashed, Legacy era, Karen Traviss' mandalorian stuff and all other shit is now gone!

I got mixed feelings towards this.

 

[Ukomba]

I stopped caring back when they declared KOTOR 2 non-cannon.

One of the best (hell I'd say THE best) Star Wars stories and they handwave it away. What a damn waste.

The latest eu attempts were to bring all questionable continuity back in with minimal changes. Even Black fleet crisis. Swtor considers kotor 2 cannon.

But if they do destroy the eu, I see no reason to buy any new novels or comicd. They're just more expensive fan fictions now.

 

[RoonMian]

I know what all of this is actually about but as a European all this talk about "the EU" being dead really makes me uncomfortable...