Lucasfilm, Del Rey & Dark Horse Plotting the Future of the Star Wars Expanded Universe

Unfortunately the Rebel Alliance (i.e. Star Wars Fans) has been unable to steal the secret data tapes that recorded the recent major pow wow at Lucasfilm's San Francisco Presidio Headquarters.

Creative teams from licensees Del Rey publishing and Dark Horse Comics were in attendance to meet with Lucasfilm's new Senior Editor for Star Wars Fiction, Jennifer Heddle and the rest of the Lucasfilm team.

Representing Dark Horse Comics were Editor Randy Stradley, Editor Dave Marshall, and  Vice President of Marketing Micha Hershman.  Representing Del Rey were Director of Publishing and Creative Development Keith Clayton, Licensing Editor Frank Parisi, and Editor-at-Large Shelly Shapiro.

Randy Stradley (left), Dave Marshall (right)

I have a feeling that with all the cool memorabilia and art work at Lucasfilm's office, I would be to distracted to focus on the job at hand, but clearly the men and women at these meetings have much better self control then I have.

No hints of what to come has come from this top secret conclave.  Hopefully the inclusion of the two major publishing licensee speaks well to continued and further integration between the two lines.  It would be pretty cool to see novels using characters from Dark Horse Comics.  A Star Wars Legacy Comic era novel?  A Zane Carrick novel based on the success of John Jackson Miller's Knight Errant novel and comic series, seems like an idea.  A Lost Tribe of the Sith comic series seems like something that would appeal to comic fans and Sith fans alike.  It will be interesting to see how events unfold.  One fairly obvious story that will be told is the marriage of Jag Fel to Jaina Solo.  Will we get that story in the forthcoming Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse book by Troy Denning?  Will we get that story in a comic like Mike Stackpole's Union.  The great thing about the multitude of characters and story lines that are in the Expanded Universe is that there is plenty of fertile ground for storytelling.

Keith Clayton, Frank Parisi, Shelly Shaprio (Left to Right)

If I was in attendance at this meeting one thing I would push for would be for Dark Horse Comics to do a series focused on ARC Troopers and/or Republic Commandos.  You could even set a Republic Commando series to take place after the events of the Imperial Commando: 501st novel and give some resolution to that story line to fans of the Karen Traviss series of novels.  The popularity of Clones and Commandos is at an all-time high with the success of The Clone Wars television series, the time is right to capitalize on this.

There was plenty of nerdy brain power at this conference to come up with some great new story ideas and I for one can't wait to hear about what the future holds for the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

SOURCES: Star Wars Books on Facebook, Dark Horse Comics