Bulk of Star Wars Universe no longer considered canon

[Emperor Smeat]

Lucasfilm dropped the canon status for almost everything outside the original films and Clone Wars stuff for the Star Wars series.

According to George Lucas, the biggest reason was so that the next set of films would have a lot more freedom for its overall story.

That's a nice extended universe you've got there, Star Wars. It'd be a shame if it were invalidated. Actually, that's exactly what's happening. Lucasfilm announced just that today via the official Star Wars blog, where it was decreed that games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and more of the many, many pieces of media inhabiting the Star Wars EU are now rendered non-canon.

"Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars," Lucasfilm stated in the blog post, adding that the films are basically the groundwork of the Star Wars legacy. With George Lucas stating this time and time again, that's hardly the surprising part of the announcement.

What's surprising is this: "In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe." This statement effectively invalidates any and all material that falls into the EU category, with games, books, comics, and a staggering amount of other media included as well.

http://www.destructoid.com/knights-of-the-old-republic-and-other-star-wars-media-no-longer-considered-canon-273831.phtml

[Kalyx triaD]

I saw this coming. It's whatever.

[Savio]

Lucas isn't touching the new films right?

[Kalyx triaD]

He's a consultant.

[Lock Jaw]

Thought this was announced as a thing pretty much after the new movies were announced.

Never got too big into the Star Wars EU anyways. Always been curious about it, though.

I did read that one series, the Junior Jedi Knights or something.... with Han Solo's kids and friends.... remember enjoying them a lot....

[loopydate]

Never got into the EU stuff. My brother-in-law is way into them and is pissed. I just always took them as recognized fanfic. As well-written as they may or may not be, if they're not direct from the source, I wouldn't consider them canon.

It's like... I don't know, the Left Behind books or something. They're nice supplemental material, but it's not gonna make the big book.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Wooooooooo If The Force Unleashed is not canon anymore!

Boooooooooo! The Thrawn Trilogy is not canon anymore. They should try to keep that canon.

Not unexpected when they announced the movies. Lucas pretty much canonized them since he didn't expect to do other movies. Disney showed him the money and changed everything.

I think the writers of the EU got a little full of themselves when it was considered canon with characters being killed off. Now they are as equal to Star Trek novel writers. Can they make a good story that people will want to read without it being labeled as canon?

[Kalyx triaD]

All up to Disney really.

[Fignuts]

This does make me wonder if they will even bother to make any post-jedi EU stuff. Actually wouldn't mind if they didn't, as they've pretty much gotten all they could out of expanding on the films.

Now, after the new trilogy comes out, I'm sure there will be lots of EU expanding off of that, which of course will be non canon.

[Fignuts]

I think the writers of the EU got a little full of themselves when it was considered canon with characters being killed off. Now they are as equal to Star Trek novel writers. Can they make a good story that people will want to read without it being labeled as canon?

What? When was any EU stuff, or any character deaths considered canon. Ayla Secura was all that was ever made canon, to my knowledge.

All writers are full of themselves. Ask Kalyx.

[Kalyx triaD]

Yeah it behooves us to believe our work the stuff of odysseys. Otherwise you're in the wrong field. An episode of Home Movies perfectly captures this in two cute scenes showing Brandon and his mom writing. You have to believe your shit is gold if you expect people to believe it silver at least.

[Tom Guycott]

As long as Greedo shooting first isn't cannon (and by extention, the hackmeat shoehorning of Slug Jabba/"spawnglitching" Solo in the hangar having exactly the same conversation with Han the freshly dead bounty hunter just had mostly BECAUSE this scene wasn't in the film), I dont really care.

All they basically did was give themselves licence to do just anout anything without having legions of fans bitching about how x scene didn't fit into the universe because of obscure novel or comic shit only the hardest of the hardcore even know about. The complaints start now, run its course, and die down instead of having the line form at the release of the finished film.

[Kalyx triaD]

The Greedo thing is such overblown bullshit.

[Tom Guycott]

Maybe. But to me, it wasn't so much rage that they couldn't just let Han be a scoundrel and morph it into "self defense" (although, it makes Greedo's aim worse than a Stormtroopers AND Han was supposed to be somewhat of a dirty cheater), it was the horrible editing job to shoehorn the extra gunshot in.

If Han Solo could teleport out of the way of a laser blast and back, why does he need to fly the Millenium Falcon or lack belief in The Force?

[loopydate]

That's what bothers me. Not that they edited it so that Han is defending himself, but that they edited it so badly. It's just really atrocious filmmaking from a technical standpoint, ignoring what it does to the characters.

[Kalyx triaD]

Well yeah it's a horrible shot. He just shifts to the side. It's jarring.

From a character standpoint, either outcome works, imo. Han's the sort of guy that can go either way like that.

[Tom Guycott]

From a character standpoint, though, it was pretty unneccessary. Like changing guns to walkies in E.T. unneccessary. It added nothing to either character, and it was a change just for the sake of changing things... and one that was piss-poor in execution.

[Kalyx triaD]

Han shooting first because he's a scoundrel, or defending himself because he's experienced enough to see a shot coming; is not the same as cops nonsensically pointing walkie talkies at you. Note that I'm specifically talking about it character wise, not the damn execution.

[Fignuts]

The edit still looks like dogshit either way.

Honestly wish they would just release the original cuts of the first trilogy on Blu-ray.

[Emperor Smeat]

Lucasfilm announces all future Extended Universe stuff will be considered cannon as part of a new unification process for the new "story group" team at the studio.

All future Star Wars Expanded Universe releases will officially be considered cannon as part of a new unification of games, films, TV, books, and more, according to Lucasfilm.

Going forward only the six Star Wars films and The Clone Wars television series will be officially considered cannon in terms of everything released before this announcement. Following the announcement Star Wars Episodes VII-IX and Star Wars Rebels, along with all future Expanded Universe releases will be connected as part of a new “story group” headed by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.

Everything that was dropped from the cannon status will still be sold but under a new Legends brand set.
However, this doesn’t mean that all previously release content will be completely dismissed. “Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner,” the company added.

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/all-new-star-wars-expanded-universe-media-to-be-connected-with-new-story-group/

[Tom Guycott]

Han shooting first because he's a scoundrel, or defending himself because he's experienced enough to see a shot coming; is not the same as cops nonsensically pointing walkie talkies at you. Note that I'm specifically talking about it character wise, not the damn execution.

Two diffeeent ideas, there. Should have separated that out of the couple sentence paragraph to make that more clear. Or went on a longer tear, but I had something to do.

I was saying, in the overall story of Star Wars, that it really didn't matter if Han shot first or not; though him shooting first did add just that bit of subtlety to the character, there were plenty of other times where his rougeish tendencies were on display. It wasn't in and of itself that earth shattering for all those that got vein-in-forehead outraged over it...

... but as such, it was an arbitrary and wholly unnecessary edit even if it were rendered flawlessly (which it obviously wasn't). The 4kidz-ing of E.T. was more a device I used to illustrate how dumb changing shit that was already established just for the sake of changing shit was.

In short: it was a dumbass move in every way. It didn't have any "real" impact by chainging it, so it didn't need to be done, and it was made more insulting by the half-assed execution.

[Savio]

He's a consultant.
Ugh even that's too much.

[Lock Jaw]

Can't wait until they write a Crisis on Two Earths crossover with the old EU.

[Kalyx triaD]

Overall, this is a better situation than the New 52 thing.

[Fignuts]

Rollercoaster week for anti-EU fans.

Probably throwing fiestas after the announcement that all EU stuff will be abolished, only to be told a few days later that all future EU will be part of their precious canon.

Wish I could see their smug faces.

[Fignuts]

Arguments are utterly stupid anyway.

You can decide yourself what you feel is canon. You don't need announcements, no matter how official to tell you how you should enjoy a series.

If you want to write your own story about Padme marrying chewbacca and having a bunch of wookie babies, and then treat it as canon in your own mind, then go ahead. George Lucas himself can't stop you.

[Tom Guycott]

My question is a minor one, though: by "Clone Wars", are they including the Taratovsky shorts as well, or just the full on CG series?

[road doggy dogg]

So just the 6 (+ future) films and Clone Wars are canon now? None of even the LucasArts created stuff (games) are considered canon?

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Yeah what a fucking mess wonder what the people still playing SWTOR think about this.

[Kalyx triaD]

Still playing; it's not like their character was gonna get into a movie or show. Decent game is a decent game.