The EU hits the fan

So yeah, now we know. It's been a year and a half now since the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, and finally, now finally they decide to let the bomb out and say that Episode VII will not be based on the EU post Jedi and it will tell a different story. Man are these guys now slow to reveal news. 

Of course this shouldn't come as surprising to anyone really, since any fan that is aware of the convoluted mess the EU has become knows that Episode 7 needs a clean slate, as it's stated here:

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s

One thing that isn't very clear is if novels like "Heir to the Empire" will now be considered as Alternative Universe or such, but it could potentially play out to be that way in the future. We also get it very clear here that film canon isn't something they are going to mess with, regardless of what some may think: 

While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.

Needless to say it will be interesting to see the upcoming novels that will be designed in this new EU, which seems to be much better handled and much more interesting than how it used to be. Some of the new novels, which just look plain fantastic, are here below: 

I will post an upcoming new post on everything Rebels sometime in May when I have more free time of my own. In the meantime, I will post an opinion piece going deep into the Jedi, in order to discard some critics out there. 

The Tarkin novel will be in the vein of Darth Plagueis, and the Heir to the Jedi is a continuation of the Empire and Rebellion series apparently. And man, does the Lords of the Sith novel look epic. I've never been more excited for the EU myself. 

PS: Whoever thought A New Dawn was going to be the title of Episode VII can now put the nail on the coffin on that one.

UPDATE-UPDATE: 
To clarify the canonicity of the EU, Star Wars Books, a web page run by Del Rey, posted the following comments:

 I think the importance of this cannot be overstated so I wanted to repost it here:
"we mentioned this in another post - to be clear, there is no "new EU." There is only the established EU--hereafter known as Star Wars Legends, and the main, canon storyline, which includes the films, The Clone Wars and Rebels television shows, and the new novels beginning this September with A NEW DAWN. It sounds like a minor thing to point out, but it's significant in the fact that even the term "EU" always meant it was outside the main, whereas now, all new material will be part of a unified whole."
So note, ALL new books coming out, starting with John Jackson Miller's next book, are NOT EU. (The same goes for the upcoming comics from Marvel, any video games, etc). Del Rey and LFL (and Marvel, etc) are working together. As such, the upcoming books are NOT a "new EU" but, rather, all canon, along with the 6 movies, the Clone Wars TV show, and Rebels.
Yes, it is a continuity reboot, so to speak, removing all previous EU from canon (unless they want to bring it back in some manner--it's all there for them to choose from) but it DOES elevate these new books in a way we've not seen before.

The Yoda Arc

Literally amazing.

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK

The Disappeared Arc

I have to say, this arc has so far been my favorite of the season. It was truly a blast. 

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK

Order 66 Arc Review

Man, this one was pretty intense. And I have to say, I don't think I have hated Palpatine more than I do now.

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK

Clovis Arc Review

If any of you have been sitting under a rock, or have been in a far away land disconnected from civilization, then you should know that all 13 Episodes of the Clone Wars Season 6 are available for streaming in Netflix. And let me say, they look gorgeous. If you wish to have a sneek peek, then by all means, be my guest and watch the trailer here:

As the Clovis arc is apparently set before the season finale events of Season 5, I decided to watch this arc first. So now, here is my review:

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK

Hayden Christensen to return as Anakin?

Thanks to a blog dedicated to Hayden Christensen we managed to find out that Lucasfilm has been promoting the Saga via China's CCTV-6  channel in a special 30 minute interview with Hayden Christensen and Anthony Daniels (voice of C-3PO). George Lucas, JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and a couple of others make appearances in that and other videos that can be found in the link below: http://www.m1905.com/video/play/728583.shtml 

Besides the fact that it's great to see Hayden again talking about Star Wars, it also brings to mind a couple of other things that are going on inside the mind of Lucasfilm. As China has become an increasingly more important country in terms of box office results, this special was probably a move by Lucasfilm in order to bring the Chinese up to the hype of Episode VII and get those who haven't seen the films interested about it. And what better way to introduce Star Wars than to bring the main character into this special? 

Despite the fact that Hayden said his appearance in the upcoming film was "unlikely" let's remember also that JJ Abrams denied his involvement in Episode VII only to later appear as director 2 months later...so how knows? 

So even if Hayden doesn't make an appearance in Episode VII, it's good to see that Lucasfilm hasn't forgotten of seeing the importance of the saga as a whole, despite what some may be led to believe. And who's to say that we won't see Hayden again as Anakin in the future? 

The Lucasfilm Story Group

One thing that recently hit waves within fandom was a series of tweets that Leland Chee sent talking about how canon would be handled as things move forward. He basically said that what is determined as canon will now be decided by a group known as the Lucasfilm Story Group of which Leland and Pablo Hidalgo are members of. Now that George is retired it will seek to eliminate the hierarchy that currently exists and give everything the same level of canonicity. 

Of course, many interpretations could be given to this, and many people have already given ridiculous reactions to this set of news. But their are a couple of things we can know from the new Lucasfilm Story Group: 

1. Their creating some sort of master story plan: At the end of the day, what this all bogs down to is that most of the future content that comes out of Star Wars will be created by them. This will obviously eliminate the possibility of EU writers going into whatever direction they want, and giving us sometimes disastrous decisions in return. It will create a more cohesive version of the universe and one that doesn't fall apart the way the previous one did with its contradictions and over saturation. 

2. Various Unknowns will now determine the future of Star Wars canon: Let's face it, the problem with this is that many are uncomfortable with the idea of someone new dealing with Star Wars canon, but it's somewhat safe to assume that guys like Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg could be a part of the Story Group.  In that case, we can be sure that much of the integrity of Star Wars will be repsected far into the future. 

It's too early to tell how exactly this is going to impact everything but it's still safe to assume that a big chunk of the EU is going by the wayside (and some still are in denial about it).