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

[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.

 

[FPLOON]

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

This.
In fact, I go as far as say that everything Star Wars-related is "non-canon" in some way, shape, or form... That's why there are perceived notions of "continuity errors" and stuff like that...

 

[FFHAuthor]

Sooo...if the Expanded universe doesn't matter, then when is Lucasfilm going to give me back a massive chunk of my money that I paid for all these Star Wars Books, Games, and Comics that I purchased with the understanding that I was reading what was happening in the Star Wars universe. Since I seem to have been immersing myself in a series of events and actions that transpired in a totally different yet completely identical universe complete with identical characters...hmm, I paid for Star Wars media, not 'It's just like Star Wars!...but not really, but we won't tell you that.' media...

Seriously, this is simply ridiculous.

Yeah, sure, whatever no extended universe, so then why set your story a few decades after the end of the last (chronologically speaking) movie?

You could write some really interesting stories in the direct aftermath of the whole Rebellion, maybe find out what happens after the Rebellion declares 'Mission Accomplished'? It surely couldn't just be as simple as killing one person and then the war is over, right? It would be more complicated and intricate, since of course a Galaxy spanning Empire would have untold millions of worlds and countless beings within it, surely they ALL couldn't have been oppressed slaves? What if some honest and good people actually liked the Empire? Maybe some people really did see the Rebellion as rebels and terrorists?

See how the galaxy reacts to this defeat of a tyrannical despot? Maybe something gritty dealing with Galactic Politics and the Rebellion trying to become a government fueled by the memories of how the Old Republic failed utterly while trying to grapple with the failures and shortcomings that restoring a 'pure' republic would bring back?

Or something philosophical dealing with the rebirth of the Jedi, seeing the Idealistic Jedi that we saw in Luke after he was trained by Kenobi and Yoda (Who gloss over all the slave armies, interstellar warfare, child slavery and brainwashing/indoctrination) while struggling against galaxy whose last description of the Jedi were ruthless killers trying to overthrow the government?

Maybe that would be a good idea for a story-line...something dramatic...

Oh, wait, I know, it's the old 'keep the name, but do whatever the hell we want' strategy. Never-mind my ideas there...I'm only a writer. Much better ideas come from Directors who specialize in using lens flare to give me migraines. Set it a while after and then the other six movies don't even matter, we can do whatever we want then!

ADDENDUM:
Hmm, and looking back on it, I may have just written an outline for a better trilogy then we're ever going to see...

 

[lastcigarette]

No Admiral Thrawn sucks but this also means there is no Yuuzhan Vong, which is great.

 

[KaZuYa]

The (Knights of)Old Republic will still most likey be still considered canon still it has absolutely no impact on the timeline of the film(s) or any future canon they make up, (KO)TOR also gives so much well written background and history to delve into for these and future projects it would silly to write it off.

 

[kael013]

Kinda sad, but we all saw this coming. While I admit the EU is a mess it had some genuinely good stories. I'm pretty sure that only post-RotJ will be stamped on (KotOR has no bearing on anything in the film's era). I hope Disney sees sense and adapts the most popular elements of the EU (Thrawn, Mara Jade, Outbound, Rogue and Wraith, Katarn); I'd enjoy seeing some Dark Empire too. But they got Abram's writing VII so I doubt they're that smart.

I'm also kinda ticked off that a huge chunk of my library has been reduced to "fanfiction I paid for" and half my childhood has been wasted on a universe that will wither and die as Disney's replaces it. Thus is life I suppose.

 

[Michael Tabbut]

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.

When the hell did they declare that not-canon?!

 

[The Great JT]

Still got the West End Star Wars game? Then the EU ISN'T dead! Take that, Lucasfilm!

 

[KaZuYa]

Or something philosophical dealing with the rebirth of the Jedi, seeing the Idealistic Jedi that we saw in Luke after he was trained by Kenobi and Yoda (Who gloss over all the slave armies, interstellar warfare, child slavery and brainwashing/indoctrination) while struggling against galaxy whose last description of the Jedi were ruthless killers trying to overthrow the government?

Maybe that would be a good idea for a story-line...something dramatic...

Well the whole point of the prequels was to show how things could not be seen in black or white, The Jedi were so caught up in their own rigid and controlling doctrine they became insensitive and callous towards human emotions and the Sith were sometimes victims of circumstance rather than evil. It was meant to be the tragic fall of Anakin Skywalker who was a good person who lost one of the people he truly loved and was going to lose the other simply because of the Jedi's unmoving and flawed mantra. Darth Sidious simply gave Anakin the odd nudge, it was the Jedi who made him fall. Those films were meant to show the tragic story of why Vader was who he was and why he saved Luke in the end. Instead we got JarJar"F*cking"Binks, the Gungun's and a screenplay/script which played out like some brain damaged monkey wrote it using its own fecal matter and spoon.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

I barely know anything about what happened after ROTJerky so i am not sure how to feel
They make a jedi school and fight some sith and clones of the emperor and then tyranids, uh, i mean yuzan vong invade from beyond the void
The jedi knight games were in there? dang, i gotta finish mysteries