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Roundup: No, it wasn’t a wish your heart made, Disney really did buy Lucasfilm yesterday

Now that the dust is settled a little from yesterday’s bombshell, we can all take a deep breath and… Continue to freak out about how there are going to be more Star Wars movies. Um.

A good place to start would be Slashfilm’s roundup of yesterday’s conference call with Russ Fischer. It addresses and expands (and yes, in some cases, speculates) on some of those lingering questions you may have on Indiana Jones, Episode VII, Industrial Light & Magic and more.

One thing I haven’t seen widely reported – though I may very well have missed it in the conference call – is Bleeding Cool’s report that Fox retains the distribution rights to the existing films.

One take I found rather interesting – if a bit paranoid – is from The Daily Intel’s Kevin Roose. He speculates that the deal is a financial dud and that Disney is getting Lucasfilm “for a steal.” I doubt this is the last we’ll hear on the financial side of this – and it’s clearly written from the perspective of a Star Wars cynic – but it’s something to keep in mind, at least. In another corner of New York Magazine, Vulture’s Kyle Buchanan and Margaret Lyons have 7 questions about Episode VII.

But overall, I think the reaction has been fairly positive, as Disney is able and – apparently – willing to let fresh eyes take on the franchise

Of course, there’s speculation on the new trilogy everywhere. ThinkProgress’ Alyssa Rosenberg weighs in on how Disney could make Episode VII awesome with 5 ideas plucked from the pages of the Expanded Universe, while Forbes’ Alex Knapp has three options and AMOG’s Keith Veronese has five. (IGN even pulled one up from their archives.) I’m sure we’re going to be seeing everyone and their vat-grown clone throw their favorite book/comic/Boba fetish into the hat for the foreseeable future. We talked a bit about this on Tosche Station last night, but you’ll just have to wait on that one!

Outside of the news sites, we’re seeing lots from the fans – and pros! – on this as well. Author Jason Fry took to Tumblr, as did Bria and Jay. Fansite proprietors at Geek My Life, NJOE and Knights Archive. And, of course, SF/F godfather John Scalzi had some thoughts as well.

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What will Disney buying Lucasfilm mean for the Star Wars Expanded Universe publishers?

What will happen to the Expanded Universe? Well, it’s too soon to tell, honestly, but a sequel trilogy could certainly mean upheaval in the galaxy far, far away – and the post-Return of the Jedi continuity that’s been in the works for the past several decades. My bare bones advice? It’s time to start hardening yourself to a more fluid concept of continuity and canon. (You might also want to check out IGN’s Joey Esposito’s great post on the 007 approach to continuity.) But it is far, far too soon to speculate about what new Star Wars movies will bring to the party when we don’t know anything about them aside from their basic existence. (Yes, I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on all that later, but one thing at a time!)

One place we can speculate on is who’s going to handling that future in publishing. We’ve seen no indication that Disney is going to shake up the way Lucasfilm works, so we can assume that Lucasbooks will remain the guiding hand. But what of the licensees themselves? They all have contracts, so things will stay as they are for now. But once those contracts are up?

Continue reading “What will Disney buying Lucasfilm mean for the Star Wars Expanded Universe publishers?”

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Disney buys Lucasfilm, plans sequel trilogy to start in 2015

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Yes, it’s official and it is 100% for real: Disney has acquired Lucasfilm. (Here it is on StarWars.com.) We’ll know more details in a few minutes but some of the points from the press release and conference call:

  • George Lucas to be “creative consultant” on franchise; Kathleen Kennedy will continue to lead company under Disney.
  • Offer is for 4.05 billion dollars – half in cash, half in Disney stock.
  • Star Wars: Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015 with more films in the future – “every 2 to 3 years.” New movies are in “early stage development.”
  • Parks, games and television ARE on the menu. Disney “really likes” the franchise’s potential on TV. Speculation: Live action series on ABC? Star Wars folks on Once Upon A Time? Eek!
  • Lucasfilm’s value is almost all on the Star Wars franchise. Shocking!
  • Indiana Jones has “encumbrances” due to Paramount, so I wouldn’t expect to hear anything solid quickly.

Here’s a video where George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy talk about the future of the movies:


  Per the release employees will be remaining at their currently locations, so hopefully this is all great news for our friends at Lucasfilm. On the official blog, Pablo Hidalgo writes a bit about the winds of change; Steve Sansweet has weighed in as well, and J.W. Rinzler looks at the ‘history’ of Episodes VII-IX.

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Out this week: Darth Plagueis in paperback

In stores on Tuesday is the paperback edition of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis. (Now in the hands of the Emperor himself!) If you’re curious, you can read my sort of/kind of/not really a review from back when it came out in hardcover, but here it is in short: If you’re interested in the prequel era, the Sith and various bits of continuity that revolve around The Phantom Menace, try it. If you’re like me and more focused on the post-ROTJ stuff… It’s probably not worth the bother. But to each their own.

Anyway, moving on, it’ll also be a bit Sithly if you read to your local comic shop on Wednesday for Darth Maul: Death Sentence #4.

And, looking at our upcoming releases for the rest of the year, Sith fans also have The Old Republic: Annihilation coming up on November 13.

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EUbits: Random House/Penguin merger confirmed, A look at some of the Essential Characters

It’s official. Random House and Penguin will be combined, parent companies Bertelsmann and Pearson confirmed today. Both Random House and Penguin have imprints that hold Star Wars book licenses, most notably Del Rey and DK. This isn’t the first time a publishing house with franchise connections has merged – In 1998, Bertelsmann bought Random House, whose Del Rey imprint had recently acquired the novel license from Bertelsmann’s Bantam.

Essential guides. The folks at Star Wars Books revealed some of Doug Wheatley’s art for the new Essential Characters. The book is currently set to come out next August.

The blogside. Del Rey’s ‘ Darth Internous,’ aka Tom, wrote about how to balance your fandom when it becomes your job at Suvudu. On the fan side, Nanci at Tosche Station begins her Jedi Prince retrospective with The Glove of Darth Vader and The Lost City of the Jedi, while Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren and Synlah speculate about John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi.

Interview. Fangirl Blog talks to James Luceno about Darth Plagueis, continuity and the New Jedi Order.

NYCC. We didn’t hear much – or anything, really – about the Dark Horse panel with Brian Wood, but if you’re still dying of curiosity, Bleeding Cool has the audio.

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G4 cancels Attack of the Show, internet shrugs

While I can’t I was ever much impressed with Attack of the Show after the horrific, embarrassing mess Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn made of the SDCC Star Wars Spectacular back in 2009, but the news that G4 is canceling the show has made some minor waves in geekdom. Gaming program X-Play is also getting the axe as G4 looks to move into “a more upscale, sophisticated guy TV space.” Uh-huh.

Between them, the two shows helped defined the G4 network as one of the few places on TV regularly highlighting ‘mainstream’ geekdom. However, as The Mary Sue’s Jill Pantozzi points out, that void is already being filled online by people like Felicia Day and Chris Hardwick. Perhaps we’re all better served that way.