In case you didn’t know, the Star Wars universe has different levels of canon. For example, G-canon is George Lucas canon. It primarily includes the six existing films. The Expanded Universe (EU), the books, comics, and games written within the Star Wars galaxy have a classification of Continuity Canon, or C-canon. Basically, anything that exists on film overrides any events that only happened in the EU. There are stories that take place after Return of the Jedi in the EU, and among other occurrences, Han and Leia are married with children, and Luke meets and marries Mara Jade.
Fans of the EU have been wondering whether the new Star Wars films would use material from those stories, but according to Simon Kinberg, they won’t. In an interview with IGN, the producer, who is working on Star Wars Rebels, Episode VII, and an unnamed Star Wars spin-off discussed the EU in relation to Rebels and the upcoming movies.
Kinberg said that Rebels is pulling inspiration from the EU, and that C-canon material could even be incorporated into the series. However, the movies will not go to the EU well. According to Kinberg, “I know, for the [Star Wars] movies, the canon is the canon. And the canon is the six films that exist.â€
Watch the clip from the IGN interview:
All this means is that the films will be new stories. It isn’t terribly surprising that those involved with the new films would want to create their own path rather than being beholden to existing stories they didn’t write. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some similarities though, like Han and Leia getting married.
What this quote does not mean is that Disney is ending or completely scrubbing the EU from existence. Even if they do make that decision, they can’t come into our homes and take away the books and comics on our shelves. We’ll always have them. But as of right now, there’s no reason to worry about EU content going away.
How do you feel about this news? Let us know in the comments…
HT: /Film
Guys, this will be easliy solved when the Millenium Falcon (carrying Luke, Lea, Han, Chewie, Lando and the droids) flys through a space-storm. This storm opens up a worm-hole that throws them into an ALTERNATE universe. So now they can do whatever they want, and TECHNICALLY everything else is still safe in the Original universe!!
The Star Wars Holiday Special is also technically canon, so we might see Chef Gormaanda.
JJ Abrams just burst into my room, looked at the bookshelf where I keep all my SW novels, and said “Wipe them out…ALL of them.”
It’s not about the content of the EU, it’s about the money. Use an EU author’s intellectual property and they have to negotiate with the author. Of course they’re not going to use any of it.
i got a sneak peak at this so don’t read further if you don’t want any spoilers. Right after the Return of the Jedi celebration scene, as soon as the trumpets die down, Spock pops out of a wormhole. All of the EU stuff happens in the universe he just came from and the new movies are in a completely different universe! Amazing right? 🙂
It is great to see that Dave Filoni will provide his great understanding and respect for EU for the Rebels same as he did for the Clone Wars. CW was very comprehensive and compact Star Wars story thanks to this and I hope that Rebels will continue with this tradition.
As for the movie(s), if really doesn’t matter what they decide to do with current canon. Anything good enough will be accepted by the fans and anything else will go down SW Holiday Special path and will be forgotten as shameful family secret…
Don’t worry J.J. Abrams will throw all of what existed before and put it in a blender and make a bloody mess out of it. #PissedoffTrekFans
Only EUs worth having a look at are the X-Wing series. Maybe Thrawn at a stretch.
MAYBE CHEWIE WON’T BE CRUSHED BY A PLANET GUYS! That is the only real benefit of deviating from the EU stories (some of which are rather engaging).
As long as they write in an emperors clone, it will be all good!!!
As long as Jar Jar has a major role in the story arc, I’m happy.
You get ditch the EU as long as you bother to fill in the gaps. The EU exists because LucasArts didn’t give two shits about the fans desire to know more about that universe (and their liberal licensing of the franchise). You didn’t exert control but now it might be a problem. Fix it once and for all, this is your chance.
There are parts of the EU that will forever have my heart, and there are parts of the EU that I’d drop like a hotpocket. The NJO and FOtJ can go to hades for all I care. Take Crystal Star, with you.
im just hoping they make an appearance at sdcc this year. 2 months of filming would be enough seeing as Guardians brought a lot of footage after 10 days.. if not sdcc 2015 will be too late for exclusive footage since promos would be out by then since release is only 5 months away. Plus D23 is in 2015, which i dont go to. It would probably skip 2015 to do D23 instead. I cant afford D23 AND sdcc in one year. maybe ill have to skip sdcc in 2015 which will be a huge mistake for a disney only expo. Someone call JJ and get him onboard with SDCC 2014
GOOD RIDDANCE (to the bad EU stories)
I’d expand his universe.
My thing is, at this point in the book timeline, there’s really not much they’d be beholden to. The thing that irritates me is the unnecessary dismissal of stuff which didn’t get in the way of the story in the first place.
Everyone says “People won’t understand what’s going on if they have to read books to set the stage,” but they don’t realize the slate has been wiped fairly clean. You’d have to blur your eyes at certain things (i.e. the fact that two of the Solo kids and Luke’s wife are all dead, and that Chewie’s back… but a crappy comic could retcon his death).
I think all the EU fans want is for there not to be something in the opening crawl that wipes out the entire NJO and Thrawn Trilogy in a single sentence which has little bearing on the story.
I don’t want references to the books… Just a manageable, retconnable story. That’d make a *better* story anyway, because that means it’s simpler and less convoluted, which was always a hallmark of Star Wars.