Star Wars: Rogue One

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/04/19/star-wars-anthology-rogue-one-gets-worlds-earliest-teaser-trailer/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NELx1y8cr1M

That sounds exciting! I look forward to seeing many Bothans die.

Well, that was blocked pretty quickly.

Thanks for sharing, though! The article has a lot of interesting info. Very glad to hear this is the plan, although it'll be sad seeing so many Bothans die…

I am very looking forward to Wraith Squadron: The Movie.

Yub yub, commander!

Yub yub, Commander!

Yub Yub Commander.

When I heard the Rogue One title  a couple weeks ago, I hoped that this movie would take a thread from the Wraiths.

I think the high point of the entire Expanded Universe was when they made Wedge Antilles fly a TIE Interceptor with an Ewok puppet strapped to his chest.

I'm really mad, but I haven't read the middle one

Rogue One has me slightly confused.  I'm only used to Star Wars movies which are part of the linear series of pre/sequels, but I guess this is their attempt at Avenger-izing the Star Wars universe so they can tell stories about other things which happen in the general Star Wars universe without it having to be about the main characters, huh?  I guess that's OK, as long as it's good on its own merits.  I can't say I'm super excited about it since we all kind of know how the attempt to get the Death Star plans ends up, but I suppose I don't mind watching many Bothans die to get the information.

The Extended Universe isn't thing in the movies, right?  So I guess none of that Rogue Squadron stuff is "real" and they'll just be using it for inspiration for the movie, like the Marvel movies use the comics but aren't slaves to it.

Here is an IGN wiki that discusses the Expanded Universe.

I understand they don't want to handcuff new big profit material, but a large part of the selling point of the expanded universe stuff was it being canonical.

I guess it is pretty easy to go back on that now that big money is on the line, but it is a crappy move for fans that know so much canon that is no longer canon.  Now you can go spend money to see the new canon.  At least until they redact it.

It's like "come get your new Star Wars canon before we redact it in the name of profit!"

Yeah, I'm bitter.

I don't think that the main problem with keeping the EU was being handcuffed to the plot.  I think that the bigger issue was probably entry shock.  They want the film to be attractive to people who haven't kept up with Star Wars outside of the films, and frankly, a lot has happened in the 30 years since Endor in the EU.  You can handwave the civil war a bit (Yeah we've been fighting for X years, but now we're in a sort of truce) and people will follow along pretty easily.  But there's been a galactic alien invasion as well, and that's going to throw anyone who isn't familiar with the EU already.

I think that if they're smart, they'll throw away the main EU history, but keep as many small details as they can.  Kind of like the way Wicked has a bunch of clever references to Wizard of Oz (my favorite being when the silver shoes are magically turned into ruby slippers).  This way, the fans won't feel like the EU has been entirely abandoned, and it plays to their egos and love of puzzles as they try and stitch together what's been kept and what's been set aside.

I would love if Rogue one had any of the spirit of the Rogue or Wraith Squadron books, which were my favorite in the EU.  Anything about X-Wing pilots just sounds great

I hope they retain some of the EU characters like Mara Jade or Corran Horn or Revan

To me, the Expanded Universe demonstrates that the Star Wars universe is big enough for all sorts of stories, regardless of canonicity. For example, the Han Solo chronicles (“Han Solo at Star’s end,” etc) weren’t really in the first-rank canon. If they want to produce movie versions of stories like that, I think they’re welcome to - they are just additional “episodes” that fit right in with Star Wars’ theme of being a classic science fiction serial.