When Disney made the decision to no longer consider the Star Wars Expanded Universe no longer canon, the conclusion was that Disney wanted to sell more books. They have released a ton of new content so far and are in the midst of retelling the entire original trilogy.
Disney and Lucasfilm have announced a new set of books aimed at young readers in the 8-12 age group, that will take the stories of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, and retell them not as we’ve seen them retold countless times through the films or other adaptations, but instead refocusing them to tell the stories from the inner perspectives of the cast of characters. Alexandra Bracken (writing A New Hope: The Princess, The Scoundrel, and The Farm Boy), Adam Gidwitz (writing The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi), and Tom Angleberger (writing Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!) will helm the project, which promises to both give a fresh look at scenes we’re already more than familiar with, as well as offer to tell what happened “between the scenes” of each movie.
Disney has been on a rampage, trying to fill the massive void that occurred when they nixed the Expanded Universe. In the last few weeks they have also announced “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens” YA book series includes a Princess Leia adventure called “Moving Target” by award-winning YA author Cecil Castellucci; a Luke Skywalker novel called “The Weapon of a Jedi” by Jason Fry, author of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia”; a Han Solo story called “Smuggler’s Run” by “Batwoman” comic book writer Greg Rucka; and “Lost Stars,” a book by “Evernight” series author Claudia Gray.
It looks like there is no stopping Disney from monetizing, retelling and releasing everything to do with Star Wars for a new generation.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.