LFL Canon Policy Comments.

[Illuminatus Primus]

According to our script, and approved by Lucas, the Dooku that you fight at the end of our game is supposed to be the real Count Dooku.

George Lucas approves game scripts personally. There you have it. The fact Anakin fights Dooku again before Ep. III is a matter of fact.

Yes. killed. We asked them over and over about this. Are you sure? Killed? Really? Their answer was always yes. You can use Dooku as the final boss and dispatch him.

This indicates significant quality control over even the gaming division by LFL. However, some parts of gaming storylines are modified when they're referenced by Sourcebooks and Guides and other later sources, and those are considered the "proper" version. I doubt Dooku is dead.

Dan Wallace, or another source book author will probably use an explanation that doesn't take the programmere/author's ideas into account. It has happened like that before in some cases. Such as Timothy Zahn's belief that Mara Jade was the only emperor's hand, and that Thrawn was bluffing to her when he said there was more than one emperor's hand. Zahn stated, "anyone who says otherwise are lying and conniving".

Whereas, according to LFL the Emperor had any number of hands including Maarek Stele (a video game character [from TIE Fighter]).

While I'll try and find the original interview, I have heard this and it is generally accepted by those who've followed his comments. This indicates that the original authors do not have moral rights over EU materials and LFL and Lucas is justified in reversing authors' opinions to suit the changing nature of Star Wars and the overall continuity.

Where both ideas were authorized by LFL things changed down the line as other sources were authorized to reinterpret the story lines so that things fit into the larger picture.

How about how Hobbie and Veers were authorized to have a death scene in [the] ESB novel? But later both were allowed to be alive again. So it took an explanation of those scenes where Veers survived but lost his legs, and Hobbie only thought he was dying but actually he healed up to live past the crash.

This is also true. It would seem that LFL continuity officials are permitted to override even novelization sources; everything except the film.

Following is some random quotes about GL and the forming of Marvel series.

Star Wars #1, July 1977, Marvel Comics
"The Story Behind Star Wars - The Movie and the Comic Mag
by Roy Thomas

It started slowly, this Star Wars project. Both for George Lucas and even for Marvel Comics.
It's a couple of years now since I met George Lucas... We met, shared a dinner and a few anecdotes and that was it.
Or so it seemed.
For, a few months later, a friend of George Lucas' looked me up. His name was Charlie Lippencott, and he was (for lack of a better term, he said) media director of George Lucas' new film, Star Wars, about which I knew nothing but the name.
Fairly understandable, since at that statge filming ahdn't even been started.
Charlie informed me, after a spaghetti dinner and some more swapped anecdotes, that he and George would like Marvel Comics in general and me in particular to handle the comic book adaptation of Star Wars...

Star Wars #1, July 1977, Marvel Comics
Marvel Bullpen Bulletins (Archie Goodwin, Ed.)

ITEM! To emphasize what Stan was saying in the Soapbox about the House of Ideas zooming along, let's kick off this column with a few words about another new title we're springing on you this month... STAR WARS!
If that sounds familiar, it might be because we've plugged it a bit in the past, but a much better bet is that you've been hearing about the multi-million dollar, super science-fiction film from Twentieth Century Fox upon which our comic is based. STAR WARS is an epic of the far-flung future where intergalactic war and intrigue ruin rampant... To do it justice in graphic story format, Mr. Lucas and company handpicked Marvel for the awesome adaptation task, singling out Rascally Roy Thomas as writer/editor and Wholesome Howard Chaykin as artist...

Birth of Non-Movie Canon (OR Dispelling the Big Green Bunny Hatred Myth) Star Wars #6, Dec. 1977 Marvel Comics

...And yes, as heralded at the end of this issue's wind-up of the film story, just 30 days from now Thomas and Chaykin will be carrying on the story of our Star Warriors, into new areas not covered by the movie itself. It came about this way:
George Lucas himself, of course, had had plans for more than one 'Star Wars' film ever since its inception several years ago. In fact, there exist several earlier screenplays under the name 'Star Wars' which bear almost no resemblence whatever to the film as it eventually emerged, and Roy was given these to scan to see if there was anything that could be turned into a comic-book Star Wars #7 and beyond. While the screenplays are fascinating, they seem if anything to occur in the months and years before the movie itself, and we're pretty certain that it's really the likes of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbaaca, the droids Artoo and Threepio, that everyone wants to see more of.
Accordingly, Roy got together for lunch in Hollywood the other day with George Lucas (as well as amiable Mark Hamill, who plays Luke in the movie) to discuss the direction he and Howie would take the trip. Messrs. Thomas and Chaykin had already plotted #7 and set the direction for an issue or two beyond, but they wanted to be sure that their own scheme of things did not conflict with future plans of George himself, who oversees the movies, books, and other priceless items which'll be emanating from the Star Wars Corporation in the months to come.
Fortunately for all (since we labor always in the shadow of the Dreaded Deadline Doom), George was enthusiastic about what Roy and Howie had done, and the other directions he suggested for the trip were nearly identical to what our writer/artist team wanted to do anyway. )Which, perhaps is natural is only natural since Roy and Howie have been two of the movie's biggest boosters since long before the film was even completed, let alone released!)
Thus, beginning next issue, you'll be treated to the first-ever sequel to 'Star Wars' the film and STAR WARS the comic-mag, in a series of stories which initially will center around... Oh yes, and one final point: Roy was pleased as a parsec of punch to learn that he is one of the few people in this galaxy who is spelling the word "ookiee" correctly (namely with two "e's"). Most places, even in the movie's own program books, it's been misspelled...

Star Wars #41, Nov. 1980, Marvel Comics
"Building An Empire- Marvel Style
by Archie Goodwin

For the last two and a half years or so, it's been my pleasure to be writer and editor of the STAR WARS comic book. Like everyone else who saw the original film by George Lucas, I came away wondering-what happens next, what are all those characters they've got us so interested in going to be doing? Unlike everyone else, I've had a monthly comic book in which to put my own speculations and imaginings on those questions to work. Aided and abetted by a lot of talented artists (most regularly Carmine Infantino, Bob Wiacik, and Gene Day), and well advised by Lucasfilm's Vice President of Publications Carol Titleman, I've set the droids adrift on a world of endless ocean, had Han and Chewbaaca duel each other in a souped-up version of a gladiatorial arena, and almost caused the Millenium Falcon to be devoured by metal-eating termites... There was a lot waiting for me. For a week I was a permanent fixture at the Los Angeles offices of Lucasfilm, Ltd; going through book after book of contact prints, selecting reference for the project from what must have been nearly 10,000 picures... and oohing and ahhing and loving every minute of it... Working side by side with me through all this was Lucasfilm's liason editor for the comics version of EMPIRE, Diana Attias. Sje amd Valerie Hoffman - who had also worked with me, coordinating earlier Star Wars comics material - kept me appriased of everything available, made valuable suggestions on which material fitted best with the latest changes in the screenplay, and patiently reminded me what freeway I was supposed to take each evening in order to get me back to my hotel...Yes, there were differences, but none of them drastic. George Lucas had requested that we not show the Wampa ice monster in any detail and that we not - in order to save the surprise - show the giant slug at all...

Business Saavy & Non-Movie Canon

Empire Building, Gary Jenkins, 1997

While the comic freaks, Kurtz and Lucas, were ecstatic at having sold the Star Wars story to the world's leading comic publishers, the reaction back at Twentieth Century-Fox in Los Angeles typified the years that was to follow. 'They thought I was the biggest fool in the world. It was, "Who cares about a comic book?"

In a way this film is designed around toys," he [Lucas] told the Los Angeles Times as the fever spread. "I'm not making much for directing this movie. If I make money, it will be from the toys."