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Ulrich, that is what I am talking about. I think the best approach would be to tackle the time period post-current EU and come up with a new story, just using canon/EU characters. Obviously, you will have Luke, Han, Leia, etc, but I think you could take a good EU character and yet write an entirely new story that doesn't screw up the EU itself.

[This message has been edited by aggiebame (edited 1/29/2013 5:47p).]

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I'd like to see a Star Wars movie that isn't a coming of age story. It's a dirty universe; have a mature hero, or even anti-hero.

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That's basically what the other Star Wars films will be for, a la Zack Snyder's potential Seven Samurai-inspired Star Wars "spin-off." The plan is to do a "big" movie every two or three years from the "main" storyline; Episode VII, Episode VIII, Episode IX, etc. (and you can bet they'll go even further than that). But coming out between those movies will be other Star Wars films that may or may not focus on the secondary characters from the "main" storyline - or, more likely, may not have anything to do with the "main" storyline at all. These will be your riskier, more isolated stories, where greater chances can be taken with the material. So we'll be getting the best of both worlds, in a way.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 1/29/2013 5:58p).]

Again, guys, the EU is not being used or referenced in any way.

Maybe not for 7,8 and 9. But who knows what Disney has in mind for future movies. Those are the ones I'm more excited about.

TCTTS, does this mean that they will go AGAINST EU?

The reason I ask is that I certainly get that they will not use plotlines from the EU. But if they go into the future, they essentially create a parallel universe if they don't include or reference some key characters from the EU.

For example, if 20 years in the future, Han and Leia aren't married and haven't had kids named Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin, then you have contradicted the EU.

I can see going off in a new direction, but I would think it would be in everyone's best interest not to conflict with the EU and create a parallel universe.

Whether or not the EU is canon, at this point, you can't think of it as such. With Disney in control now, Lucas taking a back seat, and a whole new creative team in place, all bets are off. A giant corporation is re-launching one of the most popular franchises of all time. In all likelihood, they could not care less about some books/comic only a relatively small number of people read, compared to the ENORMOUS audience that will be lining up for the movie; an audience who largely knows nothing of the EU. It's just not worth it to have to write around the EU. There are no parallel universes, because the people in charge aren't necessarily taking into account that another post-Episode VI universe existed in the first place. Again, that's not to say that there won't be a wink or nod here and there to characters/events in the EU - there very well could be - but in order to tell the best story possible, and to make the most money possible, Disney's not going to allow themselves to be handcuffed by events depicted in what essentially amount to fan-books, regardless of whether Lucas "blessed" them himself or not.

So are we talking Star Wars movies into infinite?

At what point is a story told?

If you get too far away from the source material, it isn't Star Wars anymore, IMO.

Star Wars was about Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader from Ep 1 to Ep 6. This isn't like Star Trek where you can reboot it, we are talking 20-30 years in the future in this universe.

I am curious to see how this will play out because I am not going to lie, I don't know how they are going to pull it off.

I'm not at all for Star Wars to infinity - fatigue will definitely set in (again) at some point - but to limit that world to JUST the Skywalker family story over only a 30+ year period is pretty shortsighted. There are literally thousands of stories that could be told in that world, many of which could be just as compelling, if not more so, than the six-part story we've already seen.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 1/29/2013 6:54p).]

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Disney's not going to allow themselves to be handcuffed by events depicted in what essentially amount to fan-books

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Im not saying Disney should use the EU but I have to disagree with your assessment of the EU being essentially fan fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books

They were pretty big back in the day and while i couldn't find individual sales figures they had to be profitable if they kept pumping them out.

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but to limit that world to JUST the Skywalker family story over only a 30+ year period is pretty shortsighted. There are literally thousands of stories that could be told in that world, many of which could be just as compelling, if not more so, than the six-part story we've already seen.

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Sorry, that wasn't what I was saying.

The original 6 movies were about Anakin Skywalker.

I am not saying they need to limit future movies to that, but if Disney isn't going to use EU material they will literally have to create new Star Wars characters that nobody knows or really tie into the original story.

With pretty much every movie series out there, there is some type of tie-in back to source material of some type.

EDIT- At the end of the day Disney owns it so they can do whatever they like with it.

[This message has been edited by Lestat02 (edited 1/29/2013 7:01p).]

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Im not saying Disney should use the EU but I have to disagree with your assessment of the EU being essentially fan fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books

They were pretty big back in the day and while i couldn't find individual sales figures they had to be profitable if they kept pumping them out.

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I'm saying Disney is likely viewing them as fan-fiction in the sense that it's not worth writing around them, etc. Whether or not they're officially canon is irrelevant. The EU stuff may very well be profitable, but compared to the money this new trilogy of movies will generate, the EU audience/money is nothing. So, my only point was that it's not worth having to break their backs trying to right around the EU, considering the vast majority of the new movie audience will have never read a single word of EU material.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 1/29/2013 7:20p).]

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I am not saying they need to limit future movies to that, but if Disney isn't going to use EU material they will literally have to create new Star Wars characters that nobody knows or really tie into the original story.

With pretty much every movie series out there, there is some type of tie-in back to source material of some type.

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"Nobody" knows the EU material either. That's the point I'm trying to make. Granted, the EU may have a large enough audience, but again, it's nothing compared to the movie audience. And if the authors of the EU created new Star Wars characters, why can't the filmmakers of the new trilogy do the same? They don't need pre-existing EU characters to make the movies successful. The EU isn't "source material." Besides, the filmmakers have SIX MOVIES of material to build upon and launch from. That's what movie-makers do. They create worlds and characters. Same as Lucas did when he wrote the first six films. I just don't understand why this new trilogy has to be "based on" anything, save for the first six films? Abrams, Arndt and co. are competent enough to come up with a fresh new story, with fresh new characters, which could easily be just as rich and compelling as the EU stuff, if not more so.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 1/29/2013 7:25p).]

We are saying the same thing. They will have to use the first six films and jump 30 years into the future with it.

Not easy to do, especially introducing basically a whole new series of characters. I am sure it will be run into the ground until it stops spitting out money.

Wasn't trying to defend the EU stuff. Some was great, most of it wasn't but it will be strange (at least for me) knowing that the EU stuff literally means nothing in the Star Wars universe.

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I am sure it will be run into the ground until it stops spitting out money.

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This, no doubt.

A lot of the EU stuff is no better than fan fiction. I'd like to see Disney leave it behind at least for the most part. Can't decide if it would be better to have a completely clean break or throw a bone to the hardcore nerds and keep a handful of major events and characters that are actually good/reasonable. By the YV there are no ties to ROTJ, but some of the "mopping up the Empire and rebuilding the Jedi and New Republic" stuff is going to be hard not to overlap with no matter what they do.

Ulrich,

I think the early stuff was actually pretty good but as time went on, it got much more amateurish. I think the ones that really stood out were:

The Thrawn Trilogy
The Jedi Academy Trilogy
Some of the X-Wing books
Children of the Jedi
Dark Saber
The Corellian Trilogy

You can junk all the rest, as far as I am concerned. I really wasn't a fan of the YV books and I hated that they killed off Chewbacca and I thought Lowbacca was a horrible character to introduce.

If they are setting the events of the new movies 20-30 years in the future than none of the books mentioned will really matter, except for Luke/Mara and Han/Leia being married.

The problem that they ran into with the books is that they simply ran out of good stories to tell. You can write stories about any character you want, it doesn't mean people will want to read/see those stories.

I think it would be awesome if they did a Boba Fett movie and really fleshed out that character, but in the expected time period of the new movies, I don't think they will be able to do that.

I guess this will sort of be Star Wars: The Next Generation

That or it will be the equivalent of a Star Wars: Space Cowboys movie where we are following around 60 year old protagonists.

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The original 6 movies were about Anakin Skywalker.

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two things about this

1) there weren't 6 original movies. there were 3 original movies and then 3 horrible money grabs

2) star was was not about darth at all. empire was not about darth.

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I think it would be awesome if they did a Boba Fett movie and really fleshed out that character, but in the expected time period of the new movies, I don't think they will be able to do that.

I guess this will sort of be Star Wars: The Next Generation

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i agree with both of these

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1) there weren't 6 original movies. there were 3 original movies and then 3 horrible money grabs

2) star was was not about darth at all. empire was not about darth.

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It just seems that way because you started at 4.

the story started at 4.

like lost, it was all made up along the way. Lucas made up star wars then empire was made up and then those two were put together and jedi was made.

then the others were made.

Um.... no.

Anakin was thought up before Luke ever was.

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two things about this

1) there weren't 6 original movies. there were 3 original movies and then 3 horrible money grabs

2) star was was not about darth at all. empire was not about darth.

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I was referring to original as in the 6 that were already made.

There was one character that was prevelant in all 6 movies:

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Darth Vader (born Anakin Skywalker) is the central character of the Star Wars saga,[appearing as one of the main antagonists of the original trilogy and as the main protagonist of the prequel trilogy.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader#CITEREFBowen2005

It is wiki, but look at the links that are cited (1,2 and 3) for what I quoted.

The series is literally about his rise, his innocence, his temptation, his sin and his saving. Not trying to get religious about it, but that is literally what the story arc is.

Other stories are told in 4, 5 and 6 but the overarching story is about Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.

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like lost, it was all made up along the way. Lucas made up star wars then empire was made up and then those two were put together and jedi was made.

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Just because I am a Star Wars nerd and I love learning about it, where did you find your info?

it looks like originally, Episode 4 was going to be a stand alone but because of its success they really fleshed out the story arc to be about Darth Vader and his relationship to Luke (second draft of Empire).

From what I have read, Lucas had basic outlines of Eps 1-3 written and ready to enhance as ROTJ was wrapping. Basically, his desire to do other things and wait for the technology to appear to really do the movies the way he wanted, were driving factors in not releaseing Eps 1-3 earlier.

http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/760/were-the-3-prequels-intended

Granted, it is an unsourced message board type of link but I really couldn't find anything else to refute it so take it for what its worth.

Do you have anything stating otherwise?

The original character was supposed to be named Anakin Starkiller, not Luke Skywalker. So the idea of an Anakin did come before a Luke. The full story arc didn't really happen until 1978, so you could argue that the original Star Wars was not about Darth Vader, but as soon as the second draft of ESB was written, the entire series was about Vader/Anakin.

The movies were not set out by any means as far as scripts. They made up much of that as they went along, however Lucas knew that A New Hope was the second part of a longer story that he had come up with through various rewrites of stories trying to get them into novels so that he could then make movies. So from the time the first movie came out, it was already a continued story of Anakin in general. All Lucas did when he started the production on the prequels was to expand the general idea.

The Darth being Lukes father wasn't thought up till they were writing the Empire script BTW.



[This message has been edited by Texaggie7nine (edited 1/30/2013 10:19a).]

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That's basically what the other Star Wars films will be for, a la Zack Snyder's potential Seven Samurai-inspired Star Wars "spin-off." The plan is to do a "big" movie every two or three years from the "main" storyline; Episode VII, Episode VIII, Episode IX, etc. (and you can bet they'll go even further than that). But coming out between those movies will be other Star Wars films that may or may not focus on the secondary characters from the "main" storyline - or, more likely, may not have anything to do with the "main" storyline at all. These will be your riskier, more isolated stories, where greater chances can be taken with the material. So we'll be getting the best of both worlds, in a way.

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This is exactly what I want to see Whedon do. I know he was mentioned for directing the new trilogy when it was first announced, but he's absolutely perfect for a storyline exploring some secondary characters off on an adventure of their own.

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1) there weren't 6 original movies. there were 3 original movies and then 3 horrible money grabs

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This might have been the case if the first 3 had been Episodes 1 - 3 rather than 4 - 6. Having started at 4, he then went back and did the missing episodes. What's so hard to understand about that?

As for horrible, well, that's your opinion.

I agree that the entire Star Wars saga to this point was about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. Whether that was always intended or just came about after the success of Episode IV is really irrelevant.

If ep 4-6 did not exist and there were just 1-3, I'm not sure everyone would think they were "horrible".

Another plus I recently thought about.

If the new sequels happen to have young actors in them, JJ has a way better track record of bringing on good kid actors that can actually act.

explains what is wrong with phantom menace better and in greater detail than I could ever do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

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Ulrich,

I think the early stuff was actually pretty good but as time went on, it got much more amateurish. I think the ones that really stood out were:

The Thrawn Trilogy
The Jedi Academy Trilogy
Some of the X-Wing books
Children of the Jedi
Dark Saber
The Corellian Trilogy

You can junk all the rest, as far as I am concerned. I really wasn't a fan of the YV books and I hated that they killed off Chewbacca and I thought Lowbacca was a horrible character to introduce.

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Darksaber, Jedi Academy, Children of the Jedi, and the Corellian trilogy are nowhere near the best SW stuff, although they all have their moments. Jedi Academy wasn't even the best telling of the founding of the Jedi Academy (I, Jedi was better, IMO).

Off the top of my head, this is probably a decent listing of my favorites: Shatterpoint, Traitor, Star by Star, The Unifying Force, the Han Solo trilogy, The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, Cloak of Deception, Agents of Chaos, plus your previously listed Thrawn Trilogy and X-Wing series. That pretty well spans EU and real life chronology.

YV series had some real quality installments. A galactic invasion is approaching the gimmicky, and the resolution of the series is straight deus ex machina, but there are some very well-told stories in there (including, peculiarly enough, the last book of the series). Killing off Chewie sucks, but it drove a major plotline for the entire series and brought some real drama because you knew the protagonists were not bulletproof anymore.

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Killing off Chewie sucks, but it drove a major plotline for the entire series and brought some real drama because you knew the protagonists were not bulletproof anymore.

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Agreed. It was a horrible George R.R. Martin kind of thing to do, but it added to the drama of the story once characters were no longer protected.

Funny enough, the Anakin Solo death did not hit that hard for me, but the Mara Jade Skywalker death was brutal, too. It represented a part of the "growing up" of the story. Not only were happy endings not guaranteed for everyone, but they started making the characters a little grittier and less caricatured.

dp

[This message has been edited by aggiebame (edited 1/31/2013 2:00p).]

And throw in Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future along with the Thrawn trilogy. Basically everything touched by Zahn has been great.

the best book was still the one that was orginally planned to be the sequel to star wars.


splinter of hte mind's eye.