Author Topic: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......  (Read 11039 times)

TimtheEnchanter

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #20 on: February 25, 2013, 07:34:28 AM »
AFAIK the EU books have always been considered as non-CANON. And rightfully so, because in a lot of cases, they don't pay much attention to the necessary details. There are numerous moments where the books contradict the films, or things in other books. Though there's an official "Holocron" of CANON information that authors have access to, still a lot of things slip through, and I don't think there's anyone at Lucas who reads through these books before publication to make sure everything is as it should be.

As for a fan rebellion... I think the odds of that are pretty slim. I always thought Star Trek fans were even more vigilant than Star Wars ones, and the Abrams film didn't take nearly as much flak as I expected it to. Seems most just complain about the lens flares rather than the plot, or the way it seems to defaecate on the source material. Same is true for Star Wars Episode 1. Very few complain about the overall story. They just don't like how the film was made, and would prefer that Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd could somehow be erased from collective memory.

Lothic

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2013, 02:45:05 PM »
As for a fan rebellion... I think the odds of that are pretty slim. I always thought Star Trek fans were even more vigilant than Star Wars ones, and the Abrams film didn't take nearly as much flak as I expected it to. Seems most just complain about the lens flares rather than the plot, or the way it seems to defaecate on the source material. Same is true for Star Wars Episode 1. Very few complain about the overall story. They just don't like how the film was made, and would prefer that Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd could somehow be erased from collective memory.
I think if Abrams' stab at Star Trek can give us any clues as to how he'll handle Star Wars it be that he'll end up creating relatively entertaining movies that'll have very little if anything to do with any Star Wars canon that's been established by any post-RotJ book series.  That's a bet I'd be willing to make any day of the week...

As fdbryant2 implied there might be bits and pieces that get incorporated by coincidence, but we'll never get (for good or bad) movies based strictly on currently existing Star Wars books.  Abrams will simply not be able to resist putting his own spin on this and thus will never feel compelled to follow any pre-existing "playbook" story-wise. We will all need to come to grips with that and be willing to see if these movies end up being entertaining in their OWN right.
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houtex

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #22 on: February 26, 2013, 04:30:21 AM »
I just read through this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_canon

Very interesting how that all works.  So yeah, not canon, per se.  Very guidelined, but not canon.

And what you said, Lothic, is what applied to ST:2009 for me, and frankly, any movie/TV show:  It is what it is.  Enjoy it if possible.

/I liked Speed Racer.  I did.  I can't help it.  I know it was bad.  Just like ST:TUC was bad.  And I liked it too.
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fdbryant3

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #23 on: February 28, 2013, 04:53:07 AM »

Lothic

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2013, 02:56:13 PM »
When the new movie comes out I predict their will be an overblown disturbance on the Internet as if many Geeks cried out and suddenly.............well bitching, bitching, bitching and never silenced.
I tend to think about Star Wars canon in terms of the trials and tribulations of what's happened to Star Trek.  I'm not trying to compare the Star Wars and Star Trek story universes here, only pointing out that in terms of overall quantity of "source material" Star Wars is finally catching up to the mess that Star Trek has been dealing with over the decades.

Let's put what I'm talking about into perspective.  While it's nice that people have created at least five distinct canon levels for Star Wars you could really just simplify it down to two for both franchises: 1) stuff that's been in the movies/TV and 2) stuff that hasn't.  For the sake of argument I'm not going to worry about things like the books, comics or games because each franchise has its own secondary collection of what I'd call "level 2 offline" material.  When you break it down with my two level system Star Wars currently only has 6 movies (all strongly guided by one man, Lucas) and an animated TV show.  That's it.  Star Trek on the other hand currently lumbers under 6 TV series (counting TAS) and 11 movies which were based on the creative visions of many different people.  Simply put Star Trek's canon is a mess because it has a huge umbrella of material with which to be messy with.

It'll be interesting in the years to come to see how Star Wars will handle the influx of new material being produced by new people.  As you imply I suspect when more material sees the light of day it'll become harder and harder for people to agree on what's strictly canon and what isn't.  Star Trek had to figure out how to survive in a post-Roddenberry world - so too will Star Wars have to find its way in a post-Lucas world.
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eabrace

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #25 on: February 28, 2013, 06:59:07 PM »
When you break it down with my two level system Star Wars currently only has 6 movies (all strongly guided by one man, Lucas) and an animated TV show.
Don't forget the ChristmasLife Day special!

I wonder if the old Droids cartoon from the 80s counts, too.

And the Ewoks had their own animated series and two live-action made-for-TV movies.

And there was also the 2003 Clone Wars miniseries that led directly into the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith.
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Corlagon

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #26 on: March 01, 2013, 12:00:32 AM »
Those are all considered Expanded Universe, i.e. C-canon. (Life Day might even be N-canon, George Lucas hates it).

As completely abandoning decades of continuity would cause a major outrage, I'd expect them to simply create another level of canon and say there are two continuities now. They wouldn't necessarily continue with the old one, though.

Lothic

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Re: Star Wars Episode 7 to be directed by......
« Reply #27 on: March 01, 2013, 02:15:56 PM »
Don't forget the ChristmasLife Day special!

I wonder if the old Droids cartoon from the 80s counts, too.

And the Ewoks had their own animated series and two live-action made-for-TV movies.

And there was also the 2003 Clone Wars miniseries that led directly into the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith.
I didn't actually "forget" about those but I did do my best to try to pretend they didn't exist by not mentioning them.  In any event there's always a few minor embarrassing exceptions to prove the rule.  For what it's worth I don't count Galaxy Quest as part of Star Trek canon either. ;)

Those are all considered Expanded Universe, i.e. C-canon. (Life Day might even be N-canon, George Lucas hates it).

As completely abandoning decades of continuity would cause a major outrage, I'd expect them to simply create another level of canon and say there are two continuities now. They wouldn't necessarily continue with the old one, though.
Frankly the concept of having all those "levels" of canon for Star Wars is somewhat laughable to me.  As you say I fully expect people to desperately try to come up with new X, Y and Z-canons to keep it all under control.  It reminds me of the religious schisms that finally broke up Christianity into all the protestant denominations we have today.  People need to get over categorizing things based on Saint George's whims because he's no longer head of the Star Wars church.

Hopefully as new Star Wars material gets churned out people will begin to see the futility of being too anal about it all.  Being able to pigeon-hole everything was a luxury people had when there was a relatively small amount of material to consider.  Eventually they'll run out of letters of the alphabet if you know what I mean...
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