So, today's* astonishing news can be summed up in about 6 words:
Disney buys Lucasfilm. Seven. Eight. Nine.
By luck I seemed to catch the front end of the explosion that became my twitter feed. While still in the...wait, what? stage, confirmation tweets from Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee scrolled past and the race was on to learn what I could from work. I finally caught up on the rest after the work day was through, but for me, a lot of the news came through the various tweets from my main Star Wars sources and their retweets.
"This is where the fun begins." As they say.
I did not see this coming. I rather assumed that with new leadership at Lucasfilm taking over earlier this year, that meant George would be working a bit behind the scenes while the companies moved forward. At some point the live action show would come out, and in the mean time, the Clone Wars would continue.
This may change everything. There are a lot of questions now. With new movies, will they use the same continuity, more or less, or proceed with the way Clone Wars takes on continuity? What about decades worth of novels, comics and other stories? There are certainly pluses and minuses to continuing or a rebooting or something in between, all with potential space mines when it comes to fans of all interest levels.
Speaking of fans, it has been interesting to see the range of responses. In a few short words, you can often see how somone feels about the state of the franchise, Disney, George, or whatever. The NPR host this evening somewhat tiredly asked his guest if the Star Wars series had been wrung out already. I gather he hasn't seen kids watching the Clone Wars, a whole new generation being brought in by their parents, or discovering it on their own. That should only grow with the series now starting its syndication on outlets outside of cable tv.
So, will Disney do a good job? We'll see. There is a very good chance. Earlier acquisitions give some hope. The Marvel movies have been good or better. Pixar is still doing its thing. I've always thought that Lucas seems to do better when he provides the story ideas and someone else carries them out...which is pretty much what is going to happen, by the looks of it.
From a Star Wars RPG perspective, it is interesting to note that Episode 7 releases the same time as the third announced core book Force and Destiny, in 2015. Seems that the RPG and its rules set will be well placed by then.
I will miss the independent spirit that Lucasfilm once projected, though, with the view that it was built to be outside of Hollywood and the established studios (though it obviously became a force of its own). And its going to be really odd to see the Disney logo ahead of the new movies. I guess it will replace the Fox fanfare.
So, it looks like I'll certainly have a lot of new material for the future of this blog...for now, here are the announcements and other interesting items:
Pablo Hidalgo continues to have one of the coolest Star Wars related jobs ever. His "On the Brink of the Future" official Star Wars blog post is not to be missed.
Confused about Episodes 7, 8 and 9 over the years? J. W. Rinzler chronicles it, as much as it can be, in The Long, Winding, and Shapeshifting Trail to Episodes VII, VIII & IX.
And some questions have already started about the new films.
And the only semi-official word on the status of the EU so far, from Jennifer Heddle Senior Editor at Lucasfilm/LucasBooks.
Here's the Announcement itself:
And George talking a bit more specifically about 7, 8, 9 and more.
Exciting times ahead!
...hmmmm suddenly Star Wars Celebration Europe seems a lot more interesting...not happening, but....
*this news couldn't wait for Wednesday.
Many of my thoughts are right in line with Jason Fry's Answers to your Qs post.