Lucasfilm Finally Deals With The EU

The first book published as
new offical cannon

Huge news coming out of Lucasfilm today. They have finally come out and said that the EU is not canon. They will use it as possible source material to inspire future storytelling, but it is not part of the official continuity. This is similar to how the EU material was treated by the Clone Wars, which is now definitive canon by the way - if there was any doubt.

With that I breathe a big sigh of relief. While certain stories of the EU are great, such as the Thrawn Trilogy, there is a greater proportion of mediocre or just plain bad content out there. The thought of having the 300+ novels be all part of the canon is prohibitive for both new and old school fans to get into. Fanboy wars arguing over subtle points in obscure novels is not what Star Wars is all about. The old novels are not going away. They will continue to be published, but under the moniker of Star Wars Legends. So the authors will still get residuals. That is a nice way to classify this older non-canonical works going forward. 

Now I just hope Del Rey and Marvel publishing arms will show a little restraint and not hit us with too much new content each year. The stakes are higher now because all future publishing *will* be canonical. This will become essential reading for all passionate Star Wars fans. 

In fact, this begs the question of will this backfire for fandom? For those who have held to a G-level canon, it has been pretty easy. Just know the six films and you are done. Now it is not so clear. You have the films, the 121 Clone Wars episodes, and every new Star Wars publication across the spectrum - from adult novels to comic books to young adult fiction. Plus the new trilogy and spin-off films. It will be a lot of content to keep track of. I can already hear the obnoxious fanboys' dismissive attitude toward anyone who has not consumed evey part of this content.

Del Rey has already announced four books in the adult novel line. I think 4 books over a 12 month period is plenty. I hope they keep it this way. 

• The first book, Star Wars:A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, will be a Star Wars Rebels lead in book out this September. 
• Then there is Star Wars:Tarkin by James Luceno featuring that baddie from Death Star I out November. 
• In January next year, we will get Kevin Hearne's Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi, which is a first person Luke story taking place between Episodes IV and V. We may get some tantalizing little character tidbits that might show up in Episode VII. 
• Then in March 2015 we will have Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul Kemp, featuring the Emperor and Darth Vader teaming up. It is a buddy story the likes of which have never been seen before! Maybe?

Oh and do you think they will eventuall drop the "Star Wars:" from future book titles? It will get pretty annoying.

All this is interesting but also safe. Everything is kept within the confines of the OT. I'm wiling to bet these books were in development long before the rethinking of the EU. Perhaps there was a few tweaks of story lines but I don't think there will be much here that impacts future canon. 

We shall see!