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Star Wars is getting brand new Expanded Universe

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EU fans were kidding themselves thinking that those works were canon in any way shape or form. The whole "EU is canon!" thing was basically marketing to hardcore fans so it would make them feel like those stories mattered. I'm not saying there was no good EU stuff, but the EU was just one of the many cash outlets for Lucas. Having it more controlled is better, but we are still victim to Lucas' uh, questionable ideas.
 
- New SWEU will be controlled more carefully, with team of people managing that all new stories are aligned with other content [and more importantly new films].

Well, It will be better than episode I-III
 
Fisher, Hamill and Ford won't be the main characters...so why would you say they'll build the movie around them?

And I always find it funny when people imply that the original Star Wars was some sort of bold, daring art movie when it was released...it was an effects-laden fairy tale in space. Doesn't get more pandering to the masses than that.


Irc a lot of speculation after Arndt was removed from the project was that Arndt's script was built around introducing a new generation of characters who would be the focal point of the new trilogy but when JJ came in he wanted to play it safe and focus on all the old characters. Knowing Abrams MO and what we've seen and heard since, it sounds like it could be accurate

I will happily eat crow if I'm wrong but I don't trust Abrams.
 
So just to confirm, all EU stuff is non-cannon, except the movies and the Clone Wars TV show. Is this TV series still cannon?

E7F988D53.jpg
 
It wasn't "canon" the instant The Clone Wars was approved for production.

It's not even in print anymore.

The new Clone Wars inherited Ventress from the series and never gave her a proper explanation for her appearance. They just assumed you knew her from the first episode, I presumed both series were considered canon because the latter didn't seem to scrap the original and the original still directly leads to Episode 3.
 
Whether it's canon or not, you can rest assured that it's at least superior to probably 99% of all star wars output ever made
 
The new Clone Wars inherited Ventress from the series and never gave her a proper explanation for her appearance. They just assumed you knew her from the first episode, I presumed both series were considered canon because the latter didn't seem to scrap the original and the original still directly leads to Episode 3.

Nope. They effectively stopped existing at Lucasfilm once the commercials for the Clone Wars movie started running.

They're in that weird limbo with the 80s cartoons and the Ewok movies now.
 
I liked the Dark Trooper and Space Trooper from the EU.

When I collected the action figures in the late 90's (early 2000's?) you could only get those action figures by ordering them from the starwars website, IIRC.
 
Nope. They effectively stopped existing at Lucasfilm once the commercials for the Clone Wars movie started running.

They're in that weird limbo with the 80s cartoons and the Ewok movies now.

That's a shame, I had hoped the new Clone Wars would just air a couple episodes and replace the old series to avoid this confusion.


Whether it's canon or not, you can rest assured that it's at least superior to probably 99% of all star wars output ever made

LOL as much as I liked the old cartoon, it was pretty poor in parts. The Kotor and the Dark Forces series are better for me.
 
That's a shame, I had hoped the new Clone Wars would just air a couple episodes and replace the old series to avoid this confusion.

Nah, it's only a shame if you really care where these stories fit on an outside timeline. If the timeline doesn't matter (and it shouldn't, really) then you can just enjoy them both.
 
That's a shame, I had hoped the new Clone Wars would just air a couple episodes and replace the old series to avoid confusing


There could always be a novel detailing Anikan's Padawan training and meeting Assaj written in the so called new canon since the new book with Luke is filling in time betwee ANH and ESB anyways.
 
EU fans were kidding themselves thinking that those works were canon in any way shape or form. The whole "EU is canon!" thing was basically marketing to hardcore fans so it would make them feel like those stories mattered. I'm not saying there was no good EU stuff, but the EU was just one of the many cash outlets for Lucas. Having it more controlled is better, but we are still victim to Lucas' uh, questionable ideas.

It was never "EU is canon!" It was "EU is canon until George contradicts it." They've been up front about that for like, decades, and most EU fans recognize that.

What's distressing to most people here isn't that it's no longer canon (and by canon here I mean, canon with the movies) it's that the EU as we've known it for the last twenty years or so, the EU that's been building, is over with. The OP claims new material under the Legends banner will still come out, but that doesn't appear to be the case at all.

I recognize that the movies can't be completely beholden to the EU. That would be absurd. I do wish we could keep getting new material in the EU though. It's not all great, but the will continue to be the case for the new books as well. Only now the new books that suck really WILL be absolutely canon.
 
Nah, it's only a shame if you really care where these stories fit on an outside timeline. If the timeline doesn't matter (and it shouldn't, really) then you can just enjoy them both.

I suppose you're right :)

There could always be a novel detailing Anikan's Padawan training and meeting Assaj written in the so called new canon since the new book with Luke is filling in time betwee ANH and ESB anyways.

This would work too, just Disney seemed to be 'done' with everything related to the Clone Wars when they cancelled the tv series.
 
If this means that Yuuzhan Vong and the other trash is thrown out, I'm fine with that. I'd like to see them select some of the good (basically only Zahn's stuff) books and make them a part of this new EU, but otherwise I think it's a good idea to reset it since it got way out of control in the last 15 years. The early stuff is still pretty good and I really like the books that focused on filling in the backstories of side characters more than anything else, so hopefully that's what we get.

This.
 
What? The clone wars cartoon fits with the series perfectly from what I can remember. The series happens before the last part of the cartoon that makes the link with episode 3.
 
Technically nothing is changing in terms of cannonicity, it's just confirming that everything post-RotJ is non-cannon. The only real loss is all of Zahn's books, but chances are we'll get Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn in some form in the future. I can deal with losing storylines, just keep the characters and for God's sake, don't reinvent the specs of all the ships. I'm glad that they're finally standardizing things in that respect.

EDIT: Also, I suspect that they will be letting us know at some point that The Old Republic period is safe, seeing as it can exist as lore in the distant past and doesn't represent the current Star Wars universe. More importantly, like others have mentioned, George had a bit of a hand in the creation of Darth Bane, and he is referenced directly in The Clone Wars.

The Darth Bane we see in the Clone Wars is very different than the one we see in the EU.
 
I never really followed the Star Wars EU, but I was under the impression that it sort of got wonky with force power inflation. Perhaps it is for the best.
 
What? The clone wars cartoon fits with the series perfectly from what I can remember. The series happens before the last part of the cartoon that makes the link with episode 3.

It does - which is why BobbyRoberts' advice is sound - your canon is what you make of it.

A lot of people seem confused as to why The Clone Wars TV show remains as "canon". Love it or hate it, George Lucas was heavily involved in the TV show. He sat in every meeting of the writing staff to plot out each season, and even provided episode by episode story seeds to his writers. Characters like Ahsoka and Cad Bane are Lucas' creations. He reviewed every episode at the editing stage, and gave notes back to the directors and editors. The first cut of the episode "Landing at Point Rain" was considered a disaster by Lucas, so much so that he went in an edited it himself into the final product.
 
What? The clone wars cartoon fits with the series perfectly from what I can remember. The series happens before the last part of the cartoon that makes the link with episode 3.

Yeah, I've always had the impression that the Gendy Clone Wars was still canon, but was pushed to the wayside in order to not let there be marketing confusion between that series and the 3D one. I'm pretty sure they don't contradict each other. The 3D series just takes place during the 2D one.
 
The 3D series just takes place during the 2D one.
Exactly, so I still don't understand why would some people say the new show invalidates the old one. You even need to have watched the cartoon to understand some things coming from the clone wars (for example Asajj Ventress).
 
Exactly, so I still don't understand why would some people say the new show invalidates the old one.

Because Lucas wished it to be.

To clarify - I never said the old show was invalidated because of anything that HAPPENED in the new show. It was invalidated because Lucas didn't like how it turned out all that much, and buried it with the new show.

But it was still invalidated.

So far as "validation" matters in this instance, considering the stories are worth as much as you want them to be. I really like "Clone Wars" and have a lot of fun watching it (I've watched it multiple times) so it's just as valid to me as the new show, and the Zahn books, and the Dark Forces games, etc. etc.
 
How much sense did it make to have Kyle Katarn as a part of the Star Wars canon? Apparently it was highly irregular to accept Anakin as a Jedi since at age 7-8 he was already "too old" to begin training. Yet in the EU Katarn is probably well into his thirties and eventually becomes a Jedi that was at least as competent as Luke or Anakin.


I never understood why you had to be so young to train to be a Jedi. Sure you might unlock your full potential and have a much higher chance staying in the order as a child but to (in most cases) deny anyone after age 6 or whatever?

And then that rule that all Jedi must not love. It just doesn't sit right with me. I'm assuming this all changes in the (now non canon) EU.
 
I never understood why you had to be so young to train to be a Jedi. Sure you might unlock your full potential and have a much higher chance staying in the order as a child but to (in most cases) deny anyone after age 6 or whatever?

Because it's easier to teach kids than adults.
 
Because Lucas wished it to be.
Not sure about that:

The cartoons were successful enough for Dark Horse to release a comics series, Clone Wars Adventures, based on the artwork and atmosphere of the show, in some cases with direct plot tie-ins. According to the "bumps" airing during commercial breaks on Adult Swim, George Lucas liked the series so much that he let Cartoon Network employees see Revenge of the Sith on May 17th, two days before the official release of the film. EW.com ranked the series 20th out of 25 of the best science-fiction films or television of the previous 25 years (1982-2007).[14] IGN listed Clone Wars as the 21st (out of 100) greatest animated series of all time.[15]

source: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Clone_Wars
 
"After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story — however many films it took to tell — was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories that I was destined to tell. Instead they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided. Today it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga."
-George Lucas.

It's a shame how far we have strayed from this mindset. I thought JJ would be better than the George we ended up getting, I was wrong it seems. The Star Wars universe, like the films themselves, were a collaboration and it feels less so today.
 
I never understood why you had to be so young to train to be a Jedi. Sure you might unlock your full potential and have a much higher chance staying in the order as a child but to (in most cases) deny anyone after age 6 or whatever?

And then that rule that all Jedi must not love. It just doesn't sit right with me. I'm assuming this all changes in the (now non canon) EU.

Why would it? It's in the movies - the part of the canon that's remaining.

As for the reasons why they train children and are forbidden from "love" - it's so they don't form attachments or have fears for loved ones that would draw them into the dark side.

The point is, though, that the Old Republic Jedi were wrong about the "love" thing anyway. Luke demonstrates that by loving his father and not falling to the dark side.

It's a shame how far we have strayed from this mindset. I thought JJ would be better than the George we ended up getting, I was wrong it seems. The Star Wars universe, like the films themselves, were a collaboration and it feels less so today.

I don't even like JJ but I think would be really unfair to straitjacket him to 30+ years of post-ROTJ storytelling. It's virtually impossible to bring movie audiences up to speed on The Yuzhuann Vong, Luke "force-walking," the Solo kids, and all the falls/rises of the Republic... and still keep it accessible.
 
I don't even like JJ but I think would be really unfair to straitjacket him to 30+ years of post-ROTJ storytelling. It's virtually impossible to bring movie audiences up to speed on The Yuzhuann Vong, Luke "force-walking," the Solo kids, and all the falls/rises of the Republic... and still keep it accessible.

None of that should be relevant to the story he is trying to tell with these new movies however. There is a twenty year gap between ROTS and ANH and we never needed a long winded exposition. What difference does it make if in the new movies Han and Leia only have a daughter, EU fans will know whats up and Jacen and Anakin would have no barring on the story so bringing them up to the general audience would be unnecessary.

Man, the OT mentions the Clone Wars maybe 5-6 times, it is alluded to but never a focus. "The War with teh Vong" gets mentioned a few times and movie fans take it as another event that happened off screen("Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.") and EU fans know whats up. The universe would feel grand again because there are adventures happening off screen, now everything feels stale a little hollow. It really makes me think that JJ must not be creative enough to move away from the Empire and do something new.
 
Do you have any source or any quote from him? I'm interested in what he said about the show.

He directed the clone wars, and nothing is in contradiction with the cartoon. Even the staff working on that show said they were taking the cartoon into account.

If it's not discredited by any official material and is taken into account in their production, it can only be canon...
 
Man, the OT mentions the Clone Wars maybe 5-6 times, it is alluded to but never a focus. "The War with teh Vong" gets mentioned a few times and movie fans take it as another event that happened off screen("Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.") and EU fans know whats up. The universe would feel grand again because there are adventures happening off screen, now everything feels stale a little hollow.

What's stopping him from having characters mention things that are happening off-screen that DON'T have a pre-existing book attached? That neither EU fans OR new viewers have any frame of reference for?
 
It was announced that all EU content taking place after Return of the Jedi would henceforth be considered an alternate universe, called The Legends of Star Wars. Content and characters from the Legends may reappear in the new canon

Does that mean Kotor Era is safe after all? I'm so confused.
 
What's stopping him from having characters mention things that are happening off-screen that DON'T have a pre-existing book attached? That neither EU fans OR new viewers have any frame of reference for?

I see no reason why that can't be an issue but I was framing how past EU material and events could be treated. Even as a huge EU fan, it is foolish to think that the EU has covered every single day of Luke's adventures. That is what kills me about people who want the EU gone in favor of "creative freedom", there is no way those books, games, and comics could have chronicled all of the potential story
 
Wait, what is there to stop future Star Wars Films from being set in the Legends of Star Wars universe? Or a Pixar version of Heir to the Empire?
 
I didn't really expect them to just make movie adaptations of the Thrawn trilogy.

But they'll be hard pressed to do as well as Thrawn did in being a believable bad guy for the same people who destroyed two death stars and the empire.
 
Wait, what is there to stop future Star Wars Films from being set in the Legends of Star Wars universe? Or a Pixar version of Heir to the Empire?

Nothing besides common sense. Disney's not going to make huge investments outside of the 'new' universe. That would confuse the masses and not come attached with the serialized nature of these movies. You don't get casuals feeling like they have to see every Star Wars movie, like the Marvel ones, when some don't take place in the same universe.
 
Nothing besides common sense. Disney's not going to make huge investments outside of the 'new' universe. That would confuse the masses and not come attached with the serialized nature of these movies. You don't get casuals feeling like they have to see every Star Wars movie, like the Marvel ones, when some don't take place in the same universe.

Serialized nature? They are about to do oneshots about different characters, etc. If anything, the Star Wars movies are about to get more stand alone in nature. What is to stop an EU driven director like Kyle Newman saying, yep, I'm gonna canonnize Thrawn and the Vong.
 
So long as I can still have access to the old stuff, and quite possibly see new stuff from that extended universe (I still await a proper Jedi Knight 3: Dark Forces 4), I don't care what Disney does with it.
 
I randomly came across this and can't decide if it's the best or worst thing I've ever seen.

C3px.jpg


It's an assassin droid. Because we all know how well a droid like C-3PO can move. Wait, nevermind, it's the worst thing I've ever seen.
 
Doesn't this basically mean that they wiped 30 years of books away just so they could make 7 part of the same storyline as the original trilogy? Another reason why they should've let the Skywalker storyline end with Jedi.
 

I really doubt Disney gives a damn about story elements, at the end of the day people are going to go because of Star Wars. They pretty much let JJ do whatever he wants with the story and I assume Kennedy cares either. At the end of the day, if they bring in talent to work on Star Wars, I think they are just going to let him work on Star Wars. JJ has very little oversight so I assume another one with his caliber would have little oversight too.
 
Then why did they make a whole new group dedicated to the Story and canon of the franchise?

LucasFilm threw together a group to watch over various books and games, etc.

Do you really think they are going to dictate to a film director?

"In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers..."

Seems like the movies dictate the New EU but I hardly doubt anyone will dictate the new movies.

Kyle Newman has got to get in on this...
 
I'm glad the KOTOR games are no longer canon.

The 1st one had an amazing self contained story and was fantasticly dynamic romp....but it was stupid as hell in terms of the whole universe.

It was supposed to be set 4000 years before the movies. FOUR THOUSAND YEARS!
WTF? what idiot decided that time piece?
Does the Star Wars Universe not evolve or change or something? Look at Earth 4000 years ago and where we are today, yet in KOTOR their civilization, technology etc were pretty much exactly the same as what we see 4000 years later in the movies.
Little Vacuum cleaner droids, humanoid metal droids, lightsabers, blasters, ships. All these things were never improved upon in 4000 years.

Like I said, I'm glad they've shoved that timeline in the garbage.

Star Wars is fantasy in space, not hard scifi. We don't see much technological advancement going on in Tolkien's middle earth over thousands of years either but nobody complains there because, yeah, its fantasy.
 
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