Star Wars: Disney deliberately destroyed old characters/universe for royalties

[munkeyinorbit]

TLDR: When George Lucas sold the Star Wars rights he kept some percentage of the royalties for the merchandise based on the old trillogies. Disney doesn't get anything from selling Solo, Leia or Luke figurines/stuff. But anything new they create belong to them and they get the merchandise money. So they literally destroyed the old characters to lower the interest for them and boost the sells based on the new characters. For context if you think they wouldn't do that to your favorite movie for money: SW merchandise alone (excluding movie revenue etc) generates 1,5 billion dollar per year. Yeah, they would.

YouTube link as source? Check. We can safely ignore op.

For the neckbeards that are still upset about the old characters, SW is not for you. It is a kids movie and new characters were needed to get the kids excited. People they can relate to. Some grandpa from 40 years ago doesn't bring in the $ from the kids. Of course they ruined them because it makes business sense.

[Skizzit]

What does that even mean? They publicly declared EU non canon, even though they use what they want without giving credit when they see fit. And yes I know they technically don't NEED to give any kind of credit, but when you say it's not canon and not part of our universe then take idea, designs, stories, etc from it...kind of a subtle dick move if you ask me. But it doesn't really matter to me. The originals are Star Wars and nothing will capture that magic again. The EU has a lot of great stuff in it that I grew up on and to me it's still part of the universe.

The thing is, The EU was never cannon. It always existed in this grey ares where it was only cannon until Lucas made a movie/cartoon/comic/whatever that contradicted it and then it was no longer cannon. All Disney did was make it all officially not cannon and say they would not be held back by what a bunch of unconnected writers wrote 20+ years ago. Sure, they may use bits and pieces of it and you better believe they pay royalties to the creators of what they do use, but for the most part they wanted a blank slate to do what they wanted with the universe they just paid $4 Billion for. It honestly blows my mind that anyone actually thought they wouldn't make the EU officially non-cannon.

[Aurrora]

So what did they do? They soft-rebooted Star Wars in the form of the sequels. Because classic Star Wars is the most marketable Star Wars, but they didn't want to be saddled with actors who were now in their 60s and movies that were filmed 40 years ago.

Nothing new will ever be added to Star Wars. Not really anyway. Its entire purpose is sell merchandise. A "creative" Star Wars movie may go over well with classic fans, but the target audience is kids who want to download the tie in app and spend $40 of their parents money on it, or what to buy Hasbro action figures, or want a poster for their bedroom.

If only they had some way to make Star Wars stories using the existing characters in a way that appeals to children but doesn't require them to have aging actors running and jumping around, or even voicing their old roles. I mean it's not like they just finish six seasons of a CG Star Wars cartoon featuring all the prequel trilogy characters but requiring none of the live action actors to participate.

Also a big part of the problem is that children aren't buying the new Star Wars merchandise for some reason, this seems incredibly strange that the Star Wars section of the toy aisles is the smallest it's ever been in decades in the middle of the most media activity its had in decades. Walmart's even removed their Star Wars section completely. If the issue is that kids want to play video games these days instead of buying action figures then that just highlights how EA has utterly failed with the exclusive license.

Rian was not fired. The Ds were a different project, which is kind of questionable now because they also signed to Netflix.

Benioff and Weiss's trilogy is supposed to be the next one up, interspersed with Avatar sequels with December releases. Rian's trilogy, if it even happens, is supposed to be many years out. If the D&D trilogy falls through due to them going to Netflix things are looking grim for Star Wars movies.

[Endus]

What does that even mean? They publicly declared EU non canon, even though they use what they want without giving credit when they see fit. And yes I know they technically don't NEED to give any kind of credit, but when you say it's not canon and not part of our universe then take idea, designs, stories, etc from it...kind of a subtle dick move if you ask me. But it doesn't really matter to me. The originals are Star Wars and nothing will capture that magic again. The EU has a lot of great stuff in it that I grew up on and to me it's still part of the universe.

They own everything in the Expanded Universe. There's no credit to give. That it's not canon does not mean it doesn't belong to them; it means it's not part of the official timeline any more.

Like how Marvel does "What If"s and alternative universes and all that, and even though none of those are canon for the main Earth-616 timeline, Marvel still owns all that and can use it whenever they want to in future stories.

[Vilendor]

that's not how it works at all. the old EU have been made into legends that can be made canon or proven wrong.

Yup. And we were talking about a technicality: whether "young Solo" royalty belongs to Lucas or Disney. Since the EU version is non-canon, "The Solo" version belongs to Disney. But thanks for your input

- - - Updated - - -

Rian was not fired. The Ds were a different project, which is kind of questionable now because they also signed to Netflix.

Rian's trilogy was supposed to come out first ('22/24/26 if i remember correctly), but rumours said those release dates now belong to D&D. Who knows anymore...

[JDL49]

First off I laugh at the idea of Star Wars fatigue and tell you to look at the MCU which is going strong at 2-3 movies a year. If any thing there’s tons of room for a new Star Wars film, I’ve been craving one so much I started playing SWTOR.

Many of us just don't see it the way you do. We perceive lots of variety in the MCU and not so much in SW. Now just cause we have a certain slant on things doesn't make us right but we seem to be in much greater numbers atm. Subject to change of course.

[cparle87]

Are you for real?

Star Wars being shat on was nothing to do with Disney.

Mr Lucas did a perfectly fine job crapping all over it himself when he decided he wanted to make more money, dismissed the entirety of the EU that he had licenced out and make mega bucks from for over 15 years, then retconning everything so he could make a fresh start with his own crap and make even more money.

Lucas ruined his own product, don't blame Disney.

Gotta agree with you here. I was a big Star Wars fan. Did KOTOR, played TOR religiously, read the EU books. NJO was my favorite. Then I read about the sale and the de-canonization of everything and kinda lost interest. Then I hear about the new trilogy and how it's not going to follow NJO. Officially off the train for me.

[Vilendor]

You said "Young solo is a new creation and 100% belongs to Disney." That's not accurate. Parts of Solo are taken specifically from the old canon.

Literally from the first paragraph from your link:

"Per Lucasfilm's request, I did not cover Han's time in the Imperial Academy, or his first meeting with Chewbacca".[1] These events were eventually depicted in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Before The Solo officially young Solo didn't exists, Disney created it. And even if they used the EU material, Lucas gave up on that and Disney owns it

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Yup. And we were talking about a technicality: whether "young Solo" royalty belongs to Lucas or Disney. Since the EU version is non-canon, "The Solo" version belongs to Disney. But thanks for your input

Young solo or not...still based on a character created by George Lucas...using bits of lore that were created by Lucas.

[Kaleredar]

The Star Wars fanbase is fucking scary.

"Remember, you can only be a TRUE star wars fan if you only like two out of the 14 star wars films"


People here act like the EU was some tightly-written sacrosanct material, and not what it was: the pencil lore brainchildren of dozens of different authors that Lucas green lit while sitting back on merchandising money.

In the EU, there's evil clone Luke, Chewbacca gets killed by a moon, and Luke falls in love with a sentient space ship. Come on.


Maybe Disney null and voided these things because they didn't want to have to deal with the nonsense thrown into "canon" by dozens of different writers and instead take the universe in an at least semi-guided direction.

The only, and I mean only, decanonization I'm a bit miffed about is the 2003 Clone wars animated series. But that was being re-litigated before the Disney merger.

[Xath]

I thought it was generally accepted that the Star Wars story ended with Episode 6 and everything that's being released right now is some sort of weird, lucid dream by Luke

This makes way more sense and at the end of episode 9 Luke will wake up next to Mara shake it off as a bad dream and go back to sleep just like the best breaking bad ending.

[The Butt Witch]

No, man, Doomcock is wrong on this one. The original actors are fucking old, they won't be doing more movies, so Disney wants to replace them with actual able bodied actors in order to keep the franchise alive in the long run, otherwise it will die the moment Mark Hamill retires.

Obviously it failed because the new characters introduced by Disney are so fucking uninteresting, but the premise was right.

[Xath]

"Remember, you can only be a TRUE star wars fan if you only like two out of the 14 star wars films"


People here act like the EU was some tightly-written sacrosanct material, and not what it was: the pencil lore brainchildren of dozens of different authors that Lucas green lit while sitting back on merchandising money.

In the EU, there's evil clone Luke, Chewbacca gets killed by a moon, and Luke falls in love with a sentient space ship. Come on.


Maybe Disney null and voided these things because they didn't want to have to deal with the nonsense thrown into "canon" by dozens of different writers and instead take the universe in an at least semi-guided direction.

There is also Mara Jade, Jaina, Jacen, Tahiri, Anakin, Lowbacca, Corran, Kyp and so on. Also Callista was awesome just not as awesome as Mara.

- - - Updated - - -

No, man, Doomcock is wrong on this one. The original actors are fucking old, they won't be doing more movies, so Disney wants to replace them with actual able bodied actors in order to keep the franchise alive in the long run, otherwise it will die the moment Mark Hamill retires.

Obviously it failed because the new characters introduced by Disney are so fucking uninteresting, but the premise was right.

Or they could have not nuked the EU and gone back to the several thousand years before 1-6

[Kaleredar]

There is also Mara Jade, Jaina, Jacen, Tahiri, Anakin, Lowbacca, Corran, Kyp and so on. Also Callista was awesome just not as awesome as Mara.

People are complaining about Luke "astral projecting himself" in episode 8 when in the EU you have a Jedi possessing an inanimate object.


Don't forget the "totally immune to light sabers and so evil the force doesn't affect them" edgelord klingon ripoffs the Yuuzhan Vong.


I think people's love from the EU stems mainly from them reading it as little edgy nerd teenagers and thinking it was the dopest shit ever.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Literally from the first paragraph from your link:
Before The Solo officially young Solo didn't exists, Disney created it. And even if they used the EU material, Lucas gave up on that and Disney owns it

That's literally the writer of the books talking about the books. Solo's time in the imperial academy was already Canon by the time the books were released 20 years ago.

[scubi666stacy]

No, man, Doomcock is wrong on this one. The original actors are fucking old, they won't be doing more movies, so Disney wants to replace them with actual able bodied actors in order to keep the franchise alive in the long run, otherwise it will die the moment Mark Hamill retires.

Obviously it failed because the new characters introduced by Disney are so fucking uninteresting, but the premise was right.

Beside that, Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to die in Episode V, but had to continue into VI because fan service and things. No wonder he died in episode VII. If the actor does not have the inspiration to be a character, it's better to write the character out via perma-death. At least in a universe where you don't have the Dr. Who regeneration thing.

[Astalnar]

Well, that plan backfired spectacularly, because people don't give a rat's tail about the new characters. The new merch is not selling.

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

Yeah I haven't seen anything saying Johnson's trilogy is done and his Wikipedia still says its going on.

For me TLJ was entertaining in the theater and it didn't bring me out of the movie every 20 seconds like the Force Awakens did. I feel like Rian gets too much flak when 99% of the problem with the film is because of the steaming pile of shit that JJ left him. He had the impossible task of taking the stuff JJ left him and trying to make a coherent plot while still leaving enough for a third film and apparently they didn't even leave him any notes on where shit was supposed to go.

Had JJ not tried to cash in on nostalgia and "improve" everything by making a poorer and more powerful luke, an older and quirkier yoda, a smaller and sillier R2-D2, a more powerful planet killer, etc.... And maybe done a storyline to explain how another evil group came into power in such a short time taking over the galaxy and making Leia a rebel again then maybe Rian Johnson could have created a better middle movie but for fucks sake JJ decided to turn the heroes into a small resistance again while also wiping out 5-6 planets and blowing up the super weapon. There was literally nowhere for him to go and leave enough meat for a third movie so he tried to do some side stories while keeping the plot going.

Both 7 and 8 were a narrative mess, within themselves and respective to each other with too many Black Hole sized plot holes. In 8 the "tribute" to 4 was so heavy it ended being bad, although the new characters did have potential.

For all its flaws 1 did a better job at echoing 4, but essentially the Prequel Trilogy was much more successful at Universe Building, which allowed for the explosion of EU-content and merchandising. Having watched 7 and 8 in theaters, I am at a loss pointing to any valuable iconic designs :

-Kylo Ren's mask : that one is pretty much the identifyer of 7 to 9 stuff, but it got rightfully disparaged in the show and tossed away...
-Stormtroopers : well they are just Stormtroopers with updated gear... nothing new. At least the Clone Troopers were bridging the gap between Mandalorian and Stormtroopers. Plus we had all the variety of Battle Droids on the antagonist's side, several of them now iconic to SW.
-Droids : R2 and 3PO are the only characters that bridge the 3 trilogies without any actor constraints, but instead they decided to focus on a ridiculous R2 knock-off
-Ships : a more rusty Millenium Falcon, more (slightly different) Star Destroyers, more (slightly different) TIEs, more (slightly different) Shuttles. The only striking ship design the sequels have produced so far is the absurd Resistance Bomber (lets not even talk about the Ski Speeder...)
-Locations : the only ones we got some focus on beside not-Tatooine, not-Deathstar and not-Hoth were Ahch-To and Canto Bright's Casino Resort : ie Skellig Michael Island's medieval Monastery and another Vegas place with the addition of weird people.
-Aliens : beside the forgettable Maz Kanata and a few glimpses at the Canto Bright crowd, we are left with a dead and quickly forgotten Ackbar, nuns, sirencows and porgs...

For the mess it is the EU did manage to produce significantly more iconic designs

[tyrlaan]

Many of us just don't see it the way you do. We perceive lots of variety in the MCU and not so much in SW. Now just cause we have a certain slant on things doesn't make us right but we seem to be in much greater numbers atm. Subject to change of course.

Good point. While you can point to a good chunk of MCU films that do follow similar formats and genres, they also have a lot that don't. So you get a heist movie, a bond-esque movie, a trippy acid movie, a space opera comedy movie, etc., and its clear they have plans to keep branching out like this so things don't get stale.

This might actually have something to do with why Rogue One was so well received. While it's not a massive genre break from Star Wars, it is certainly much darker.

[Xath]

People are complaining about Luke "astral projecting himself" in episode 8 when in the EU you have a Jedi possessing an inanimate object.


Don't forget the "totally immune to light sabers and so evil the force doesn't affect them" edgelord klingon ripoffs the Yuuzhan Vong.


I think people's love from the EU stems mainly from them reading it as little edgy nerd teenagers and thinking it was the dopest shit ever.

Lol people are complaining about Luke astral projecting himself because he didn't actually go to fight astral projecting isn't anything new. Also there was Cortosis weave long before the Vong and they weren't so evil the force didn't effect them they were outside the force due to shattering their connection with their previous sentient world. Granted the vong arc was on the downspin of the eu along with the jacen has gone evil arc but the Timothy Zhan, Kevin J Anderson Rogue Squadron Heir Academy etc. era was pretty damn good.

- - - Updated - - -

Literally from the first paragraph from your link:
Before The Solo officially young Solo didn't exists, Disney created it. And even if they used the EU material, Lucas gave up on that and Disney owns it

It was cannon long before that movie was ever made that Disney threw it away doesn't mean it wasn't.

- - - Updated - - -

You seem interested primarily in shitting on the new Star Wars stuff, but ironically, the two films we have so far from this new trilogy have added more to the universe than any of the prequels, so "nothing" is a bit of an exaggeration. A bit.

This is entirely independent of whether you liked them or not, mind you. It's irrefutable fact that TFA and TLJ (especially TLJ) added to the universe.

That's incredibly wrong. The prequels while they had some of the cringiest dialog ever had fantastic world building that's one thing that Lucas could absolutely do. TFA and TLJ have detracted from the universe and made it seem smaller in a way that the prequels never did.