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pwalker8 · 11-21-2019, 12:34 PM

A bit quiet here, so I thought I might bring up a subject that cropped up recently. With the start of Disney +, the Star Wars Universe is being expanded. In addition to The Mandalorian (I've enjoyed the first two episodes, a review described it as Clint Eastwood's Man with no Name meets Star Wars), the various movies and a number of new series and movies are planned over the next several years.

One note that I noticed this morning is that the Disney president in charge of the Star Wars franchise said that the books that were commissioned by Lucas, starting with books in the late 70's by writers such as Brian Dailey and Alan Dean Foster, and then Zahn's Thrawn trilogy were no longer going to be considered canon, thus following the comic book and movie practice of rebooting a franchise. Books following the 2014 purchase by Disney are considered cannon (Zahn apparently has a new Thrawn series coming out starting next Spring). I'm sure those who follow the Star Wars books more closely than I do were aware of this some time ago.

So, my assumption is that the all the movies are still considered canon, though there are some fairly big inconsistencies in the movies once you get past the original trilogy.

What's the point of all this. Well, there are been many, many long series of books that are set in a common universe, some by the same author, others by multiple authors. Examples range from the Perry Mason series, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, James Bond, Darkover, The Dragonriders of Pern, Witch World, Wizard of Oz and a whole host of others in various genres. Some are careful to maintain continuity (i.e. making sure that what is said in one book isn't contradicted in another book), others were fairly careless about such things, and that is with the original authors.

What do people think about changing canon? It's obviously common in the comic book and movie world. Does a lack of continuity bother you as a reader? How about reboots? I can't really think of many reboots in book series, but I'm sure it's happened. I seem to recall that David Gerrold wrote himself into a corner with his War Against the Chtoor series, then went back and put out new additions of the first couple of books.

Wrapping it back into the Star Wars books, I read most of the early Star Wars books (there were not a ton of them), up until the early 90's, but totally lost track of the mass of books that were produced since the original Zahn Thrawn series, so the change in direction by Disney doesn't really bother me much. I did think that the two main line movies didn't really hang together well, but that's a different matter.

11-21-2019, 12:34 PM	#1
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Star Wars Universe A bit quiet here, so I thought I might bring up a subject that cropped up recently. With the start of Disney +, the Star Wars Universe is being expanded. In addition to The Mandalorian (I've enjoyed the first two episodes, a review described it as Clint Eastwood's Man with no Name meets Star Wars), the various movies and a number of new series and movies are planned over the next several years. One note that I noticed this morning is that the Disney president in charge of the Star Wars franchise said that the books that were commissioned by Lucas, starting with books in the late 70's by writers such as Brian Dailey and Alan Dean Foster, and then Zahn's Thrawn trilogy were no longer going to be considered canon, thus following the comic book and movie practice of rebooting a franchise. Books following the 2014 purchase by Disney are considered cannon (Zahn apparently has a new Thrawn series coming out starting next Spring). I'm sure those who follow the Star Wars books more closely than I do were aware of this some time ago. So, my assumption is that the all the movies are still considered canon, though there are some fairly big inconsistencies in the movies once you get past the original trilogy. What's the point of all this. Well, there are been many, many long series of books that are set in a common universe, some by the same author, others by multiple authors. Examples range from the Perry Mason series, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, James Bond, Darkover, The Dragonriders of Pern, Witch World, Wizard of Oz and a whole host of others in various genres. Some are careful to maintain continuity (i.e. making sure that what is said in one book isn't contradicted in another book), others were fairly careless about such things, and that is with the original authors. What do people think about changing canon? It's obviously common in the comic book and movie world. Does a lack of continuity bother you as a reader? How about reboots? I can't really think of many reboots in book series, but I'm sure it's happened. I seem to recall that David Gerrold wrote himself into a corner with his War Against the Chtoor series, then went back and put out new additions of the first couple of books. Wrapping it back into the Star Wars books, I read most of the early Star Wars books (there were not a ton of them), up until the early 90's, but totally lost track of the mass of books that were produced since the original Zahn Thrawn series, so the change in direction by Disney doesn't really bother me much. I did think that the two main line movies didn't really hang together well, but that's a different matter.