Star Wars Sequel Novelist Timothy Zahn Discusses The Upcoming Movies

[Brendon Connelly]

Patrick Dane writes for Bleeding Cool

At some point the internet will have had enough of Star Wars news, but not tonight. This story just refuses to die.

And so now Timothy Zahn, writer of the much-loved 'Extended Universe' trilogy of novels set after the original films, has had his say over at EW.

Zahn makes it clear that he is not at all privy to up to date details, but he said that George Lucas once shared his vision about future movies.

The original idea as I understood it - and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he?s thinking right now - but it was going to be three generations. You?d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke?s father and find out what happened to him [in the prequels], and if there was another 7th, 8th, or 9th film, it would be Luke?s children. The Thrawn Trilogy really would have fit into the gap

This is obviously pretty old news as we have had a trilogy of films, one of them twice over, between now and when Zahn and Lucas had that chat, but it's worth something.

Zahn's creations have made their way into the prequel trilogy before ?*- for example, he called the seat of the Empire Coruscant - and his novels are still considered canon.

In those books, an Imperial general Thrawn cobbles together the remains of the Empire after the death of Darth Sidious to try and regain power. While this almost certainly won't have any bearing on the story of the new trilogy, it is an example of how the Empire is conceived as a beast that just won't go down.

Nothing Zahn quotes seems too out of step with earlier reports,?*but none of them - just yet - seem to be what we'd call conclusive evidence.

[Stefan Offenberg]

As I understand it, only the movies are considered "canon" by Lucasfilm, and elements of the Expanded Universe don't become canon until they are referred to in the movies.

That said, it would be fantastic if any of Zahn or Stackpole's creations made it into the new movies, such Thrawn, Mara Jade, or Corran Horn.

[Teek]

Near as I can tell there's a solid forty years of continuity post-RotJ that will have to be either ignored or avoided by a new trilogy. Not too sure how I feel about that.

[Cavemold]

No clue who that guy is. He would be an awesome villain?

[Lars Jensen]

As I understand it, only the movies are considered "canon" by Lucasfilm

Isn't Shadows of the Empire considered canon by Lucas? Or at least: was considered canon at one point?

[Blackfist]

Isn't Shadows of the Empire considered canon by Lucas? Or at least: was considered canon at one point?

from what i hear The Force Unleashed games are canon too

[Comicsfan101]

Isn't Shadows of the Empire considered canon by Lucas? Or at least: was considered canon at one point?

When Heir to the Empire was first published, there was a small forward from Lucasfilms specifically declaring it and what followed to be canon.

[Mike H.]

I hope the new trilogy is about how the galaxy descended into chaos after the fall of the Empire and led to everyone living in trees like Ewoks.

[NielsVanEekelen]

LucasFilm has its own people whose job it is to make sure that every single licenced story fits within the same canon. Of course, then Lucas decided to do The Clone Wars animated series, and it used a great many things from the Expanded Universe, but took many liberties with them.

So I think "canon" is a fairly useless term in this instance. Everything's canon until it isn't.

[Reliant]

It's what happens when you play with other people's toys. They might eventually want them back.