Timothy Zahn’s Thoughts on the New Star Wars Expanded Universe.

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Timothy Zahn, the author of ten Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (including The Thrawn Trilogy) posted on his Facebook page some thoughts on the new EU after Lucasfilm’s official press release from a few days ago…

 

From Facebook:

Having now had a few days to process the news from LFL, a few thoughts:

First, since many of you are wondering, I have *not* yet been asked to write any new Star Wars books. But that doesn’t mean I won’t receive such an invitation in the future. If that happens, whether or not I accept will depend on what kind of story I’m asked to write, what input I’d have on the content, what era the story will be set in, etc. I would certainly *like* to return to the GFFA, but at the moment that’s not my decision to make.

Second, as far as I can tell from the announcement, LFL is *not* erasing the EU, but simply making it clear that nothing there is official canon. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, nor does it immediately send everything into alternate-universe status. If nothing from the Thrawn Trilogy, say, is used in future movies (and if there’s nothing in the movies that contradicts it), then we can reasonably continue to assume that those events *did* happen. It looks to me like the “Legends” banner is going to be used mainly to distinguish Story-Group-Approved canon books from those that aren’t officially canon but might still exist.

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Third, even if something from the Thrawn Trilogy *does* show up in a movie in a different form, we authors are masters of spackle, back-fill, and hand-waving. For example, if Ghent appears in the movies but never mentions Thrawn, I can argue that he simply doesn’t want to talk about that era, or else has completely forgotten about it. (Which for Ghent isn’t really much of a stretch.)

Finally, there’s nothing inherently demeaning in the term “Legends.” Think back (a little farther…a little farther) to Disney’s 1950s “Davy Crockett” TV series, (a show I grew up with) which presented stories and legends about the King of the Wild Frontier. Historians have Crockett’s genuine history, but there’s nothing that says these TV adventures *didn’t* happen, right? So until and unless the legend puts Davy in Tennessee at the same time the real history puts him in Virginia, we can still believe those adventures happened. That’s how I expect it to be with the “real” Star Wars history versus the “legendary” adventures of the EU.

Bottom line: let’s all sit back and relax and see what new adventures are offered to us, both in new books and new movies. It’ll be Star Wars, and that’s what counts.

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.

Born on April 24, 1980.

Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

21 thoughts on “Timothy Zahn’s Thoughts on the New Star Wars Expanded Universe.

  • April 29, 2014 at 8:38 am
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    It is sad that there is so much great books already written on Star Wars, which is read and respected by the “real fans” of Star Wars… and if they “rewrite” all of that and do their own thing… sadly this is like giving the real fans a big screw job.
    One thing that Star Wars always had through many authors is ONE STORYLINE….. now with this new movie they will undo 20 years of book writing. The one storyline is what made Star Wars special vs. Star Trek which has many stories that contradict each other.

    • April 29, 2014 at 1:17 pm
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      “Real fans” only because you blew hundreds on novels to make Lucas rich I take it?

    • April 29, 2014 at 1:21 pm
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      And of course because you put the fan back into fanatic.

  • April 29, 2014 at 8:47 am
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    Thank you Mr. Zahn for all the wonderful GFFA moments and epic adventures in your SW books. I really did enjoy the Thrawn Trilogy and could not agree with you more on the latest EU development and news from Disney. It’s more Star Wars and that is what matters. And we all know that more is simply better! 🙂

    • April 29, 2014 at 8:49 am
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      GFFA as in the government or “Galaxy Far, Far, Away?”

    • April 29, 2014 at 9:00 am
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      to answer your initial question GFFA = Galaxy Far, Far, Away as mentioned by Mr. Zahn in the story above.

  • April 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm
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    The best thing is that all of these different media authors, did their best to resemble to Star wars universe as much as possible in their projects, some better and some less better, that’s why I love EU…

  • April 29, 2014 at 12:44 pm
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    Perhaps the EU could be relegated to the same universe where Han shot first. The new movies take place in the universe where Greedo shot first.

    • April 30, 2014 at 4:17 am
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      That’s an amazing idea. The old Eu takes place in a pre special edition universe and the majority of the events in TCW aren’t real… But on the topic of distinguishing, I’ve heard someone use CU (Canon universe) for the rebooted disney universe, and I think that that is a pretty good way to set up things.

  • April 29, 2014 at 1:00 pm
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    Out of the EU stuff, I think Thrawn would be the character I would like to see most brought to the big screen (Benedict Cumberbatch would be perfect for that role). Mind you, it doesn’t mean I will hate Disney and Star Wars forever if they don’t. Like Zhan said…. It’s Star Wars and that’s what counts!

  • April 29, 2014 at 4:09 pm
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    Kneel before Zahn!!!

  • April 29, 2014 at 5:45 pm
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    Glad to hear that Zahn is so positive. I happen to believe the same, I don’t think they are trying to piss people off. They will do whats best to make new movies, Which are hopefully great. I will always loved the books I grew up reading, and I hope that these new movies give me that same feeling. it’s a great time to be a fan and I am glad to be here to witness it

  • April 29, 2014 at 5:50 pm
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    Who cares what he thinks, he wrote those lame books 20 years ago, get over it.

    • April 29, 2014 at 10:48 pm
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      top trolling lol

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