And James Luceno's next Star Wars novel is...

[JME2]

[url=hhttp://www.theforce.net/story/front/Lucasfilm_ ... 157583.asp]Star Wars: Tarkin[/url]

It looks like this will be taking place primarily during the gap between ROTS and ANH and focus more on Tarkin's rise up the ranks to Grand Moff.

We've gotten pieces of the story, but Luceno is an ideal candidate to do it.

He handled Tarkin fairly well in Dark Lord and showed his first team-up with Vader.

And given his success with Plagueis, he's well suited to tackling another villain's story.

[Darth Yan]

If the chronology is to be believed tarkin was already on sideous's payroll even before eriadu (in fact he helped make sure evidence vanished). Also the death of his son made him even more fanatical

[Mange]

If the chronology is to be believed tarkin was already on sideous's payroll even before eriadu (in fact he helped make sure evidence vanished). Also the death of his son made him even more fanatical

That's technically no longer canon, but we'll see how many elements of that Luceno will manage to reincorporate into the canon.

[JME2]

If the chronology is to be believed tarkin was already on sideous's payroll even before eriadu (in fact he helped make sure evidence vanished). Also the death of his son made him even more fanatical

That's technically no longer canon, but we'll see how many elements of that Luceno will manage to reincorporate into the canon.

The irony of this is that Tarkin is meant to be the first of the post-EU continuity novels -- and yet Luceno's whole shtick is continuity.

[Techno_Union]

Amazon has a free sampler of the four upcoming books. Tarkin's sample was interesting enough; I look forward to the rest.

[Thanas]

If the chronology is to be believed tarkin was already on sideous's payroll even before eriadu (in fact he helped make sure evidence vanished). Also the death of his son made him even more fanatical

That's technically no longer canon, but we'll see how many elements of that Luceno will manage to reincorporate into the canon.

Was it ever explicitly stated that the EU is no longer canon or is it simply assumed the new movies will do what they want and thus ignore/supercede the EU?

Because iirc it is the latter.

[Mange]

If the chronology is to be believed tarkin was already on sideous's payroll even before eriadu (in fact he helped make sure evidence vanished). Also the death of his son made him even more fanatical

That's technically no longer canon, but we'll see how many elements of that Luceno will manage to reincorporate into the canon.

Was it ever explicitly stated that the EU is no longer canon or is it simply assumed the new movies will do what they want and thus ignore/supercede the EU?

Because iirc it is the latter.

The April 25 press release (which told that the existing EU would be rebranded "Legends" explicitly said that the new canon consists of the six movies and The Clone Wars. It went on to say that the new canon would also include Rebels and the new novels that are to be released.
StarWars.com

On the direct question whether it was only post-ROTJ EU that was considered non-canon but before that as well directed to Jennifer Heddle (senior editor at LucasBooks), who is part of the Lucasfilm Story Group, on Twitter the same day she answered:

It's all non-canon, but it all exists as a resource that could be used down the line.

Twitter

A second press release on the same day on the new canon novels to be released included these nuggets:

(Scott Shannon, Del Rey) [...]we're excited to finally be able to call our upcoming novels true canon — a single, cohesive Star Wars storyline

In years past, the storylines that would appear in print and on screen were developed separately, resulting in an “Expanded Universe” that differed in ways large and small from the filmmaker’s “canon.” These rich stories provide a treasure trove of characters to fall in love with — and deep worlds to explore and will live on in both physical and digital editions, newly-branded as Star Wars Legends.

StarWars.com

[Thanas]

Huh, so they are really doing the tabula rasa.