I think it would be cool if Abrams rebooted episodes 1 - 6. I really like the newer Star Trek movies.
Different beloved franchise that has been ruined.
With an unfortunate lack of face-melty goodness.
I didn’t really pay much attention to the EU. I read a couple of novels and a few comic book stories, but none of them really grabbed me or made me feel beholden to it.
But I was broadly aware of what the major beats were, who some of the new characters were, and what the new relationships and progeny and major enemies were, some of which subsequently appeared in the Clone Wars animated series (which I believe is still going to be considered part of the canon), and I’d be happy if those were generally respected, at least; that Han and Leia married and had three kids named Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin; that Luke married Mara Jade, etc. I don’t think those ideas would negatively affect the new movies, so it would be nice if they remained.
But I also know 98% of the Star Wars audience has no idea about any of that stuff so it really isn’t going to be that big a deal if it gets entirely wiped out.
No. That remains totally cannon. It was the only way they could get Carrie Fisher to come back.
I gotta tell you, man, the EU is so untrue to the original movies and such poor quality in general that if you’re holding it with such high regard then I say that is YOU who are not a true fan. To me, getting more of the story from the EU is about on par with a taxidermist turning your dead grandma into a puppet so that you can celebrate one more Christmas with her.
(And I say this as a guy who ran a Star Wars web/IRC-based game with 250+ members, and who met his wife while she was running the Mark Hamill fan club.)
Yeah, because it requires a lavish bribe to do what any sensible person would have no problem doing.
You do know that “Ewoks” are simply dwarf Wookies (e-wo(o)k) who were exiled because they were considered mutants?
I have an objection to the stupid excuse that ignoring the EU will preserve the surprise for the films. The same reason why the Resident Evil films didn’t follow the game was because the director said he wanted it to be a surprise and that people wouldn’t watch a movie if they already knew the plot. Bullshit, LOTR followed the plot and each movie made hundreds of millions of dollars and is a generally respected and praised version of how to adapt a book to a movie. In my mind, they should have taken the best EU stories and adapted them for the movies. Surprise is nice if you’ve shown you can do a good movie, but you can make hundreds of millions of dollars not surprising us and doing the coolest parts of what people have been imagining for 30 years.
This. Except you forgot about the first three moviefilms. As long as they bring Jar-Jar back then the future moviefilms should be excellent.
So it seems everyone wants to watch a moviefilm about a story they already know. So you guys must love that Hollywood is only making remakes instead of new stories. You are what’s wrong with Hollywood.
It was always obvious that Disney would jettison the Star Wars EU. EU novels were crap; at best a step below D&D novels, at worst a (bare) step above Herbert Jr. and his seafarin’ sandworms.
However, I’m mildly disappointed that this decision takes away the possibility of white-hot book vs. no-book spoiler arguments for Star Wars. I don’t often indulge in watching trainwrecks, but the thought of meltdowns because someone mentioned lightsaber knees or whatever from the books has a certain evil appeal…
This “not a true fan,” business is really irritating.
I have read a bunch of EU Star Wars material. I don’t claim expertise the way I do for Star Trek or Buffy, but I am certainly more versed in the Lucasverse than your average Joe.
So what kind of fan does that make me?
Answer: a fan the franchise wants.
I have money, i spend it on tickets, I buy extra merchandise. That’s what they want.
On a less commercial level, creative people create. They don’t, or shouldn’t, want to exclude.
But because SF, fantasy, roleplay games, tabletop games, cosplay, and similar pursuits have only recently begun to take on a lustre of their own, and because for many years the admission you played AD&D in high school was an admission you didn’t get laid in high school, many people feel as though they have suffered for their art, so to speak, and fiercely defend it against interlopers. A casual fan didn’t get ostracized, they seem to think, so fuck them for wanting to be accepted into the fandom community the same way me and my friends are. We suffered for our fandom. We know Han shot first, and we’ve discussed how one can “do” the Kessel run in parsecs. Or we’ve debated why “Avengers Arena,” wasn’t worth shit. Because these types of topics all have one thing in common: they offer a rich alternate universe filled with its own swaths of information, and immersing ourselves in the fandom means we know it, and if you don’t know it, and agree with it… well, you suck.
That’s a foolish mindset, no different in ultimate substance than the jock who once shoved you into a locker because you had no interest in sports and didn’t fit in high school society.
Cut it out. Let people enjoy the fandom on whatever level they like. A “true fan,” is allowed to self-identify as a true fan and no further bona fides are necessary.
pfft. Poseur.
In addition to Bricker’s excellent post, which is 100% true, there is also the inescapable fact that most Star Wars fans don’t know or give a shit about most of the EU.
I mean, my fiancée knows next to nothing about the EU… but she knows the MOVIES. She knows the good ones essentially by heart, knows the prequels well enough to know they suck, and will at the drop of a hat provide you with an impassioned, fully referenced argument as to why the first three films are a cultural touchstone to an extent matched by no other work of cinema ever. But…
… She’s never played “Knights of the Old Republic” or “TIE Fighter.”
… And so she doesn’t know who Revan or Admiral Thrawn are.
… She’s never read a Star Wars novel.
… She’s never watched more than thirty or forty seconds, tops, of “Clone Wars.”
She’s vastly more representative of Star Wars fans than any EU fan. (I lie somewhere in the middle; I’ve played most SW video games and so know a little about stuff like that but I’ve no interest in the novels.) It’s insane to tell me a woman who regarded showing her daughter and stepdaughter the original films was tantamount to a religious experience isn’t a “true fan.” But say what you will, she’s got money, and if JJ Abrams releases a Star Wars movie she’s going to pay to see it. And there’s a lot more of her than there are of SW-novel-reading people.
There’s something cool about being a deep part of the SW in crowd. I think it would be cool if they made a Knights of the Old Republic TV series. But don’t tell me my lady’s not a true fan. She sure as hell is. Watch her face when Yoda gives his speech to Luke about the force, before Luke tries to lift the X-wing - it’s a moment of pure bliss. The Star Wars movies do not require a crash course in the EU to be a tar Wars fan. They are magnificent works all their own and they hold up on their own.
Actually, I don’t think you’re the fan that they (Disney) wants. I think you’re the fan that it is nice to have, in addition to the fans that they want.
I think that the fans that Disney wants are the kids. That is who Lucas was targeting with the prequel trilogy, and who are squarely in Disney’s wheelhouse. Grown fans with money spend on tickets and extra merchandise – but they’re nowhere near the rate of consumption that kid fans are at. Because kids usually have more than one adult with money spending on them (and buying tickets as child + adult, instead of just adult).
My nephews and their hordes of little friends are all Star Wars (and Harry Potter, Marvel, etc.) fans and have far more merchandise than any of the adult fans I know who aren’t “serious collectors” (i.e., hoarders). Star Wars marketing is relentlessly directed at kids.
And kids care not at all about the EU. They’re not even aware of it; when I explained to Number One Nephew a while back, it just didn’t matter to him. It doesn’t matter to him if the Marvel movies follow the original comic book storylines. (It did matter a little to him that Harry Potter and The Hobbit strayed a bit from the books, although he accepted when LotR did so.)
The thought that Disney might pause a moment over consideration about how the “fans” will react to jettisoning the EU from movie prospects is laughable. Those are the fans they’re guarenteed to sell to, anyway; they’re not the fans that Disney needs to buy in.
A true fan would never say this.
Seriously? A lot of the Star Wars novels were utter crap on par with the Star Trek ones. And the artwork for the “Clone Wars” is so terrible that half the time, Obi-Wan looks like fucking Alan from “The Hangover” in a robe.
It’s just a science fiction franchise; this stuff comes and goes, and periodically someone reboots it, for better or worse.
It’s crazy to even contemplate that they would even consider being limited by 35 years worth of peripheral materials. It would be a nightmare. “Star Trek: Enterprise” and the Star Wars prequels owe much of their failure to the ticking off of continuity lists. It would guarantee shitty movies for years to come.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
But isn’t that itself an absolute? (So that would make Obi-Wan a Sith!)
I’m very much looking forward to Sword of the Jedi coming out later this fall.