I was talking to a friend of mine who like me is a fan of the pre-disney expanded universe books and comic books and I was telling him that when Disney bought it, they could've easily made their own stuff but at the same time hire some authors to keep writing stories in the EU/Legends universe. Also, since they knew they were doing a streaming service they could've adapted some EU books to do non-canon animated movies like DC has done.
He told me that the problem with that is that it would make Disney look very bad if they did an animated mini-series or movie adaptation of something like Heir to the Empire or New Jedi Order and people enjoy those much more than the sequel trilogies. I figured that since Disney owns the rights to it they wouldn't care since they get the money.
In hindsight it is probably best Disney didn't try to bastardize the EU with an adaptation although they are doing Heir to the Empire I hear.
Do you think that would've made them look bad to have an EU adaptation on their streaming service that was more popular than what disney star wars produces?
I still will never understand why they didn't at least continue it. They had a built-in fanbase, and you need the hardcore fans because normies will leave once the next popular thing comes around.
Star Wars was bought under a bad pretense. It was sold by Iger to Disney as shoring up an appeal package to male audiences (same as the Marvel acquisition was) because Disney had a self-image of owning the young female market with their Princesses while having little to appeal to the audience they were missing.
But Iger found in Kathleen Kennedy a kindred political actor. She told him all the things he wanted to hear, and herself had a plan for furthering an agenda and narrative that he liked, but it was the complete fucking opposite of "appeal to young boys." For Iger, nothing made more sense than to let the contractually obligated 'protector' of the franchise that Lucas himself installed, to have her way when she was telling him everything he wanted to hear. It was like a massive gift had fallen into his lap.
Iger had undisguised aspirations for a bid for President on the Democrat ticket and pushing any and every Left-friendly agenda with his stewardship of a media mega-giant was a great way to set that up.
Kennedy had more than just Left-friendly messaging on her mind though. She is and remains one of the biggest egomaniacs you will ever find. She felt personally affronted to go unrecognized for her 30 years in Hollywood as the unsung hero of every great story ever told. She truly and actually believed she was personally responsible for the success of Star Wars in the 80s. She believed she was personally responsible for the success of Indiana Jones. Gremlins. Those were all hers, and her genius had been overshadowed by undeserving others. So this was her chance to prove it.
She decanonized the EU for this reason. She had to be in total ownership of what came next, and what was allowed to be 'real' for all time. Disney's favored official excuse to 'create room' for their own stories is HER reason, and she sold this reason to Iger, and it appealed to his ego as well.
Irony on irony has manifested in the meantime. Giving Disney a "male appeal" franchise to compliment all their female-led franchises, morphed into "widening the appeal of the historically male" Star Wars instead. Undoing the whole reason Disney plunked unreasonable cash on the acquisition.
The fact that it all blew up in their faces is just the final comeuppance. Pride goes before a Fall.
To your question: it is about the bruised ego and pride of a small group of power players.
And to think I thought it was in good hands because George had glowing praise for Kennedy. I am sure he is under some sort of agreement but when he dies I bet we will hear what he really thinks of disney. Yea, they could've easily expanded their brand and changed their image for boys who saw them as a princess factory, but no. They are obsessed with cramming women into everything. I don't have disney plus so I didn't see Kenobi but when I heard that Leia was in it I knew that the reason behind that was pure agenda.
I'm not going to say Kenobi is good, but on the plus side it didn't feel like constant agenda pushing. Leia is a typical annoying kid that is somehow both "beyond her years" and the dumb kid carrying the Idiot Ball, but she's not always the focus. It's got lots of member berries to the prequels, which is a plus if you liked those, and classic SW settings which will probably leave you wishing they had just made a drama about the lives of meat farmers on Tatooine.
I loved the prequels. I read the EU book Kenobi and it was about him reluctantly getting involved in a local fight between farmers and Tusken Raiders. I also heard Kenobi was originally supposed to be about him on Tattooine. I guess from what I heard it breaks lore since there is a rematch and Leia being involved makes no sense. If they want to do a show on Leia’s early years they should do so. Actually enjoyed the politics of building the new republic in the books.
My only disagreement with this is that Disney does have the young boy market. If you're a kid under 10 you love Disney. But kids under 10 don't really pay the bills. So they need Disney adults who are overwhelmingly girls and will spend stupid money on disney. Like the type of people whose only vacation every year is to disney. What the fucked up with is they thought that disney adults were going to instantly love star wars but didn't realize that the disney adult crowd doesn't give a shit about star wars because it doesn't sync up with the same vibes.
woman in charge = ruined
dont really need to think deeper than that
The EU did get a little silly, convoluted and contradictory at times. They had a good model with the MCU, which was to mine all the greatest comic arcs and carefully craft a single narrative out of it, that could have easily been replicated with SW. Dave Filoni would have been the man for that job. He cared about SW the way Kevin Feige cared about the MCU.
The reason they couldn't do that, or even use the EU straight up, was KK. Disney the company wouldn't care about doing an about face to make money—they don't even care about upending their content to not make money—but it would have required firing all the hardcore progressives who would try to use their media/finance/NGO allies to burn it all down.
But the good thing about about the EU was that was not everything was canon. You could have wild stories or video games that just made up shit and it was fine.
But now everything down to every game is canon, hell even galaxy's edge is canon(and stuck in a day to day loop), to the point that they can't even keep up with what is canon and things are already contradicting each other.
I love the EU but yes it wasn’t perfect. It just makes me laugh when Disney shill websites attack the storylines and then Disney canon takes the ideas
Did you read the Han Solo or Lando Trilogies? I’ve heard New Jedi Order described as Star Wars written by Clive Barker
Thanks for your service. My sister was Navy but I chose the Air Force. I need to compile my EU collection and see what I’m missing. I recently bought Crucible and Heart of the Jedi as well as random NJO and Darth Bane. Plus I’m getting into the old Tales of the Jedi comics. Never thought I’d have no interest in new star wars content. But Disney made it happen lol.
What was your favorite EU book?
As someone who never read much of the EU, I'm gonna need an explanation.
How terrible, dying fulfilling his life debt protecting han and his sons and gets treated as legendary hero any time he's mentioned after. Disney star wars would've had him become a spice addict who curses Han and his family as slavers, so much better! /s
I don't care about Star wars enough anymore to think about an answer.
Totally understand.
I get that Disney owns it but it annoyed me a little for them to just wipe it out and not just continue it in its own universe. Although I could see Kathleen Kennedy being upset if an animated movie showing Luke mentoring Jedi and not being a quitter gained more popularity