5 Reasons Disney's Star Wars Story Group Is A Good Thing (And 4 Reasons It's Not)

The Good

5. It Paves The Way For The New Star Wars Trilogy

A quick look at the catalogue of Star Wars fiction shows that the years following Return of the Jedi is a very crowded place. Understandably, before the prequel trilogy arrived beginning in 1999, spawning an interest in the history of the universe, the most asked-for area for new stories was what happened to the heroes after the credits rolled on Return Of The Jedi. As a result, the era filled with stand-alone novels, trilogies, comics, video games, and more. For Disney to set a new trilogy of films here, they faced an important question: what do we do with the current stories? The assumption had been that the old rules would apply. The movies would come out, and whatever existing stories or information they contradicted would be overruled. Hopeful EU fans held on to the notion that perhaps an existing story, like Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, would be adapted for the film. It turns out that the answer will take a little bit more work. Because of the presence of the new films, this era of Star Wars is likely to see the heaviest pruning, and many of the existing stories here may be cleared out to make room for the new Abrams trilogy. While this may mean that we lose some treasured characters and stories from the EU, we will not have to waste any more time debating what does and does not count in the Star Wars canon, and Abrams can focus on making good movies instead of worrying about stepping on the Expanded Universe's toes.