Sources of E! Online however, provide a different story, claiming that Disney will instead opt for an entirely original story for Star Wars Episode 7 and the following installments. They acknowledge that there are treatments in place and the despite the nine beloved Star Wars Expanded Universe novels written by author Timothy Zahn (most notably, the Thrawn trilogy which begins with Heir to the Empire) which technically qualify as canon according to the publishing department at Lucas Licensing in the ’90s, none of that will serve as the basis for the films going forward.
E!’s Leslie Gornstein reports that she’s heard directly from LucasFilm and other sources “close to the picture” that Star Wars Episode 7 will tell a story never before seen in the extended fiction. That of course, also applies to episodes 8 and 9 which were confirmed by Disney chairman Robert Iger on a conference call earlier today.
Ok let me get one thing straight here. I never said I wanted or wished for a straight-up adaptation of a novel or any previous lore. Just do things like keep the characters as they were, which isn't really that hard to do. What I mean is that I would like a story "never before seen in the extended fiction" with Luke & Co.(all dying at the end or some form of acceptable closure which I feel in my subjective opinion might happen) and their children whose names are Ben, Jaina and Jacen. Their personal histories can be altered to suit the movie for all I care.
I definitely feel Luke needs to have a son, as one of the big themes of the Star Wars movies is the relationships between Fathers/Father-figures and sons. This is seen with the relationship between Obi-Wan and Luke or even Vader and Luke and in the prequels Obi-Wan and Anakin, Qui-Gon and Anakin(briefly) or even Palpatine and Anakin. If that does not come to full circle with Luke, then they are not satisfying the one of the themes of the movies and I will have no doubt the movie will suffer if it doesn't fulfill that.
As for this "female lead" it could may as well be Jaina who Luke could train, but please do keep Ben. Luke must have a son. If they can keep further elements, like the Vong, more power to them.
If they do something like change the timeline such that there has been nothing but peace since the battle of Endor, they would be deluding themselves seriously. Something like Palpatine's Empire with it's numerous fleets of Star Destroyers and endless armies of Stormtroopers doesn't fall in one day to a merry band of rebels, I'm sure in this movie like in the novels would have the Empire fall into chaos at first then reorganized again, like what Thrawn did. That is something the novels got right.
If everyone here really wants me to keep an open mind, then why is it that people here won't accept the possible reality of
Luke, Han, and Leia all possibly dying or getting killed off?(Just to go back to
the thread's main topic). This was mainly evident in the first people who posted on this thread.
They are old, and not the spring chicken heroes they were, and according to most signs I've seen(I've done research of my own too! Most particularly of Harrison Ford!) that's what they are possibly going to do when I think of "never before seen in the extended fiction" as it was never done in extended fiction. They wouldn't do it for shock value but rather to make their stories come to full circle and they may do it immediately or 1 for each episode. From what I could see, Han is very likely to shoot first and die first. This belief stems from Ford's very public disdain for Han Solo as seen here and in other interviews throughout the years:
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As for why he would come back even when he could be written off, two reasons, the big $$$$ paid by Disney and/or the opportunity to finally see him die after all these years.
P.S. Han dying first may also line up with the spin-off movies they might do(the rumored Yoda, Han Solo and Boba Fett movies, they're still doing those yes?). I could see that after Episode 7 where Han dies, the first movie might be a story which pays tribute to the character and fully round up his story.
