Yesterday it was announced that the Expanded Universe of Star Wars would be kicked to the corner, but Disney and Lucas Film are jumping right into creating new EU content and have shared the first four novels to be published.
The first of the four new novels will set audiences up for the coming Star Wars Rebels animated television show set to premiere this fall. Star Wars: A New Dawn will follow Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla as they cross paths and tell backstories leading up to the show. Check the full press release about this book:
The first novel to benefit from this deeper collaboration is Star Wars: A New Dawn, by bestselling author John Jackson Miller. Set prior to the events of the forthcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels, this novel tells the story of how two of the lead characters of the series, Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, came to cross paths. To tell this important backstory, Miller benefited from contact with series executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg and Greg Weisman, who together ensured this tale will be part of the Star Wars canon of storytelling going forward. It is scheduled for hardcover and eBook release on September 2, 2014.
The next three books will focus on Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and, get this, Grand Moff Tarkin. The Luke focused novel (Heir to the Jedi) and the Darth focused novel (Lords of the Sith) are set to release early in 2015. We will be able to read about Tarkin a bit earlier though as Tarkin will be released November 11th.
What do you think about this announcement? Will you be looking to pick any of these up in the future? Give your thoughts in the comments below.
11 Comments
Am I allowed to be slightly upset at the choice of lightsaber in that picture of Luke and still claim that an EU reboot doesn’t bother me in the slightest as long as the stories are good?
Bit disappointed that they didn’t go with something more along the lines of putting everything into a maybe column and then announcing specific books as being considered non canon but leaving things that didn’t specifically contradict their work alone to say that decades worth of work is now non-canon is a little insensitive I mean some of my favorite characters are now what fanfiction?
@DFTgamer
My impression is that LucasFilm is using what ‘fits’ in their ‘new universe’. They may like some elements of a book, but not others.
An example would be from Zahn’s Thrawn series. Keep Thrawn, but not use C’baoth or Borsk.
I don’t see it any different than when DC and Marvel reboot their universe and choose what characters and comments they want to keep.
My issue with the EU reset was that Lucas made sure to define canon. I remember reading that there was someone at Lucas Film who’s only job was to decide what was canon and what wasn’t (there was even a gradation system) . If the EU was a nightmare like DC or marvel’s continuity I would get the cleanup. but now it looks like they want to re-use thing already produce but don’t want to buy the right from the authors.
You are correct, there was a sort of level system for canon:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Canon#Canon_in_the_Holocron_continuity_database
I’m very disappointed that they are going to throw away 30 years of canon. Still, it does mean Chewbacca may not have a moon dropped on him.
Personally I’ll be unhappy if he dies in a lesser manner. It just showed how awesome Chewie was that it took a planet going boom to kill him. If he eventually dies from a wound or age, it just wouldn’t be as fitting.
I’m not making any big judgements yet, but I’m at least happy to see some familiar names writing some of the stories.
I am not shocked as well as ok with this. The EU had some really cool stuff, and some crap stuff, but it was A LOT of stuff. It was simply unrealistic to think they could make a new line of movies while keeping in mind hundreds of books, comics, games, ect.
There is/was a system they used to keep everything straight (or as straight as you can get) within the EU. They talked about it when I was at Dragon*con back in ’10. Zahn was on a panel and talked about it. Said you can type a character into it with a date and it would tell you everywhere that character was. Even type in multiple characters and it tell you when they met, where they met, ect. Said it was a massive thing that was really well done.
That in itself is part of the issue. Lets says that LucasFilms/Disney has a great idea. That Luke never marries as he is focusing on the Jedi. That the Solo’s have a single child that Luke helps raise as a Jedi due to lack of kids. That would nullify 50% of the EU. The Vong series could not happen the way it did, all the Young Jedi Knights books would be invalid, the fall of Jason and the New Republic could not happen. All b/c they changed the kids. The EU is so tight, compaired to most other series, that if you change almost anything it ripple and jacks up everything.
Zahn said that the checker was a program like a wiki that only current Authors had access to. That people at LucasFilms did the updates and adding. When you were done it was returned or something
“The EU is so tight, compaired to most other series, that if you change almost anything it ripple and jacks up everything.”
I believe that was sort of the point, to try to have one cohesive continuity. It was one of the reasons I enjoyed the setting so much, because what happened in one story actually mattered in another.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t flawless and they had to do a few retcons, but it was better than many other franchise EU settings where what happened in one story meant nothing in another.