I see a lot of people are looking beyond the ships that are left in Star Wars canon and are, quite fairly, looking towards the Star Wars Extended Universe (EU) for inspiration when it comes to future waves of ships.

Personally, I've read every EU novel since they started coming out in the early 90s. So I can see a lot of potential ships, and a lot of potential pilots in that general mix of stuff; the same as many of you are talking about.

BUT…

There's a lot happening "behind the scenes" in Star Wars, these days, especially with Episodes VII, VIII and IX in production. They could, very easily, trample all over some, or all, of the EU we are speculating on.

That's right… no matter how much you loved them, the brilliant X-Wing novels (and comics) by Michael Stackpole, might never have happened, and the characters in them might never have existed (besides already established characters like Wedge), once these new movies come out. Coruscant might not have been liberated that way. Wraith Squadron might never have existed at all…

I know it's a bitter pill to swallow -- trust me, I know -- but if you need any proof about this kind of stuff being a possibility, look at what the Clone Wars TV series, for kiddies, did in relation to the Republic Commando series of novels; it wiped them out! The author of that series had to toss in the towel because the TV series, literally, re-wrote so many things about Mandalorians, in particular, that it made her novels make no sense any longer.

So, yes, when it comes to bringing Star Wars to the big (or small) screen, they have absolutely no qualms about totally changing things. And that's why the EU might be really, really, really difficult territory for FFG to tread, at present, as some ships (and pilots), might no longer exist (or, at the very least, have done the things we think they did), once the new movies start coming out. The long-mooted live action TV series could change things further.

So… what are your thoughts? If it turns out that certain ships or pilots don't actually exist in Star Wars canon in the years ahead, would you still like to see ships, and pilot cards, produced for them? Once upon a time, I would have said, "Heck yeah!" but, honestly, the way in which they destroyed the Mandalorians in the TV series… if I had ships or pilot cards based on any of the novel characters (who I LOVED), I'd feel weird about them now.

For me Star Wars IS all the books and comics.

The films are nice, but the essence of Star Wars for me are the books. And I fear they will ruin Star Wars for me, if they rewrite canon.

And the books and the comics are what MADE the canon. I haven't seen much of Clone Wars and after what you wrote I am not sure I want to anymore ^^

To answer your question. Yes I would love to see ships or at least lots of pilots out of the books and comics. Better that than some continuity destroying new stuff.

peshk said:

I totally understand where you are coming from but… I dunno… I just don't see the new films sticking too closely (if at all), to a lot of stuff that happened in the EU. For example, will the young heroes of the new films be the children of Han and Leia? What about Luke? And if Luke, did he have the child with Mara Jade? And did Han and Leia, if they had kids, have three? And were they Jacen, Jaina and Anakin, or someone else? And did the whole Yuuzhan Vong thing really happen? And if it didn't, does that mean Anakin's still alive, if indeed, he ever existed at all?

Once you start digging into things, it gets more and more complex. One reason, perhaps, why a lot of EU will be left behind by the new movies, for starters. ie: There's just so much of it that tying it together, or not wanting to step on its toes, will be something the production team on the new movies won't want to be bothering itself about.

I think whole chunks of the EU are currently in a state of flux. I'd hate to be creating something based on it.

IMHO I prefer to see ships that were actually on the big screen. I have never read any SW books or comics. I have seen the Clone Wars cartoons as my 5 year old son watches them. I was 9 years old standining in line to see the first Star Wars movie in 1977. I'm not real interested in buying a ship that I've never seen.

One reason everyone is looking to the EU is that the ships from the Clone Wars/Prequel trilogy are quite often tiny compared to the Civil War era ship and wouldn't be a good fit. And we're still a long while from DisneyWars content being available for incorporating into the game.

With the current ages of the actors themselves, the perfect timeline to start off on would be the Darth Caedus saga. Theres lots of action, drama, and plot to make movies out of that, leading into the Fate of the Jedi saga. They would be able to incorporate a lot of what is drawing people to Star Wars now with the Mandos and Boba Fett, there would be the same old characters we know and love with plenty of new ones so it's not just Han, Luke, and Leia.

But back to the original question, I really think they wont change anything too drastic as Lucas retained creative rights, so I would love to see them move towards the EU after they release what we've seen in the movies.

Rogue_Four said:

Unfortunately, however, I don't get the sense the Disney scripts will be based on what happened in any of the books. It's based on an idea from Lucas, insofar as where he saw the universe going, post-RotJ. And I don't think Lucas has sat there, reading all the recent EU novels and thinking, "Yeah, that's where my universe should go…" So, I wouldn't expect to see Caedus or Fate of the Jedi stuff at all.

Morrissey said:

I wouldn't be so quick to write off Disney as this big perpetrator of evil deeds. Did you enjoy the Pirates of the Carribean movies or The Avengers? True, it will never be exactly as the books are, but I highly doubt the staff they pick to write the movie will turn to the EU and say "Yeah, this is good and all, but let's completely disregard it and the fans and do whatever we want."

While I could definitely debate some of the points in this thread, I will try to remain on topic.

Someone put it very well somewhere else I read, and so I'd like to paraphrase it "If they made a lego set of it, its fair game"

There are some of the ships that have leaked accross so many different mediums that I think they are pretty ubiquitous and recognisable even though they weren't in the movies. In this case, I'd argue for the TIE Defender and Z-95 Headhunter. The Defender has been in a number of books and videogames, as well as having been cast in a number of micromachine lines and did have a big lego set a few years ago. The Z-95 also has a huge list of appearances, and with its inclusion into the Clone Wars cartoon has defnitely hit mainstream.

Rogue_Four said:

I didn't write off Disney as a, "big perpetrator of evil deeds" at all.

I pointed out that Lucas, who has given the three movie plotline to Disney, is highly unlikely to have read the EU novels we're talking about and, on top of that, even if he had read them, is even more unlikely to say, "Yeah, just do that stuff… that's cool stuff… hey, my work is done!"

If you're thinking these three Disney movies are going to be tied into the EU novels in a major way, I think you're going to be highly disappointed. Lucas is absolutely going to take his own path in regard to what's going to happen, and he won't be guided by the EU novels.

I realise you might not want to believe this, because it's not what you want, but I see it as inevitable, mate.

MetaphoricDragon said:

We'll see a TIE bomber before the Defender; I'd just about bet my house on it, given it's had screen time in one of the most iconic of all SW films… in a section of plot that included hunting the Millennium Falcon… the links are too delicious to ignore.

The Z-95 is a chance, too. I'd imagine it on-par with a basic sort of TIE fighter, in terms ot the game rules.

I don't think a Z-95 is nearly as nimble as a TIE…

but btt.

I don't think that the disney films will be bad films. They made marvel movies better, and have good films on their own.

I don't really think "Disney" as an entity does more than writting checks.

And I WANT more movies and TV-Series, but I want them to continue what EU lovers already know.

I don't really think it will happen, and I fear they (not they as in Disney but thes as in those people who will make the film, or they as in Lucas gives a sh** again about the things which made him good money^^) will butcher my beloved EU. BUT what I wanted to say with my privious post was:

who says this game has to role with the new, not even existing things, instead of getting inspirations in a large known expanded universe which a lot of people who play this game like?

I'm just hoping they continue to release new ships. Its doesn't particularly bother me one way or another if the they do Clone War, EU or future Disney movie ships. As long as they continue producing them. The thing that worries me is that the game system will max out design wise and just end up duplicating existing ships.

For these movies to be the best they can be, I think they have to disregard the EU completely. If things line up, great. If they don't, whatever. You can't chain your screenwriters to a stack of dodgy books. People should be walking out of these movies talking about the amazing things they just saw - not about if they think it was accurate that Admiral Thrawn was portrayed as being right (or left)-handed.

As regards X-Wing, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a freeze regarding EU ships post RotJ. Wouldn't surprise me either if there wasn't, though… everybody likes money.

peshk said:

Agreed completely with this. However I am already resigned to the current Extended Universe becoming an Alternate Universe under Disney. The biggest worry I had about Disney buying Star Wars was them ditching the existing story to write their own, which seems to be exactly what they're doing.

I think FFG should stick to ships from the movies simply from the point of view of what will sell more

I haven't read all of the books, so I could very well be wrong about this but aren't some of the pilots that have been used in the game from the EU?

Does it matter? Can't they do both? Would a stealth-x be out of place with an M-wing or w/e disney does?

We still need a tie bomber, lamda shuttle, and b-wing… **** it.

Either way, its a table top game… i still think we need pilots to fly multiple ships, with inserts to let Wedge fly a Y-wing or w/e.

Gullwind said:

Almost all the Imperial pilots are from the EU. With the obvious being Vader and Fett.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Maarek_Stele

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Krassis_Trelix

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kath_Scarlet

And so on.

peshk said:

I meant more in terms of its attack/defence, than pulling off crazy moves.

I like the fact that they have stuck to ships from the classic films for now. If they choose to start including ship from the comics, novels, or video games, that would be far preferable to using ship from the preqel films or Clone Wars cartoon.

I'm not sure why people are concerned about the upcoming Disney films "breaking canon" or "ditiching the story"… the Prequel films are already a distinct story that do not fit into the timeline of the original films, and that story is so crap that ditching it would probably be a good thing.

The EU itself contains a lot of cool stuff, but it is not entirely self-consistent, so as long as the new Star Wars films have a good storyline and interesting characters, it shouldn't really matter if fit into any particular person's notion of "Star Wars Canon" -- which is a concept that no two Star Wars fans are likely to agree on in any case.

The film's story will be completely original and not based on any prior source from the Expanded Universe. The film instead combines the "Abramsverse" of the Star Trek series of 2009 onward with the Star Wars continuity. Future installments in the Star Trek series will branch off the same continuity, and will not follow a preset schedule or episodic title system.

Quoted from wookiepedia.

I haven't read any of the EU books, but if a ship came out with pilots and abilities, I may go out and pick up the book to find out the back story.

What I honestly think will happen… We haven't even gotten an official announcement of what is even in Wave 3. We will get that announcement. Then we will wait for those ships to take a while to actually be released. Then we should have early screens of Ep. 7. Then some new ships in accordance with Ep. 7 will be announced. Ep. 7 will be released, and soon after we will have a small release of some ships lifted out of Ep. 7. Thus more or less avoiding the EU question.

What MAY happen is they may release some pilot card expansions for use with the ships we already have to sort of tide us over.

Just my opinion. Sounds kind of grim, I know, because I WANT a lot larger ship selection, and those coming from the EU.

One thing I'm not certain of is the deal FF has with the license. They have pulled some stuff from the EU already, especially with regards to pilots. Does their contract actually cover Disney and the new stuff? Is their contract at all with Disney, or was it leftover from Lucasfilm? Maybe they got the license to do whatever with the Star Wars stuff that had been released up TO THAT POINT.

I know that Fox and Lucasfilm have been notoriously difficult to deal with, as far as licensing of stuff. I truly can't imagine Disney would be less so.

Also makes you wonder that since Disney took over they've halted any new Star Wars video games, I wonder how that's effected FFG and the future of X-Wing. Perhaps the only reason Wave 2 went ahead is that it had already been announced, and they've been halted for now until Disney sorts out what they want the post-Endor Star Wars to be like?

Also, for Wave 3, I suspect that the three ships we may see are the Lambda shuttle, B-Wing, Tie Bomber, and YT2400. Specifically because the Outrider is one of the only bits of EU that became mainstream Canon. They even put it back into a scene on Tattooine. The only issue with that is that I don't believe it's different enough, from a gameplay perspective from the YT1300. Hell, Dash Rendar is sort of a poor man's Han Solo.

we never see a Z95 in the movies or a Defender.

As an aside on the Defender, yes, it is arguable the most advanced starfighter in the whole Star Wars universe.

some think its too advanced.

Me, I think that otherwise without it, the Rebels have the best, most advanced ships.

Why do the Rebels HAVE to have the best? Why is it so bad (other than the fact that they are the bad guys) for the Empire to have the best? They have the resources!

It can be balanced out in point cost. If a TIE Defender cost as much as 1 1/2-2 X-Wings (since I think it is about as good as 1 1/2-2 X-Wings) then what is the problem? As I recall, story-wise Defenders and X-Wings balanced each other out, since you had Rogue Squadron (arguable the best Rebel pilots out there) fighting the best Imperial pilots (they had to be to even get into the Defender) and it came out pretty even, or still in favor of the Rebels, even if just for a plot point.

DingusFett said:

Dude! They wouldn't do that to us, right? Just NOT say anything? I wish we had more dialog with the developers of this game.seriously. From things like wishlists to tiny bits of I for on the day to day with production and such.