Plus, nothing says we still can't pick and choose which EU material to follow. ![Tongue :P](https://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/Smileys/classic/tongue.gif)
This.
Plus like I said, I haven't seen anything that says ALL EU has been dumped into the abyss. Like the statement said, Rebels is already picking up on things from the 1980's even... Sienar Fleet Systems will "exist" as something, etc.
Till me, till a movie dumps on it, it's part of my world if I like it... After a movie dumps on it, I'll try fudging in what I enjoyed about the old EU that got fudged up.
Yeah I re-read the statement and it's basically that the EU's there till it's overwritten and even then, it's still there but just different. I'm curious to see what elements will be brought into NEW material. They said all elements of the EU will be available to people working on new material... That's kind of telling I think that EU isn't dead like is being claimed... It isn't. A storyline or character could get overtaken by the new stuff though.
I liked the line, "Lucasfilm always strived to keep the continuity in order" (paraphrased), when man they didn't strive for dick. They were constantly crow barring things together, and fitting things after they realized they dumped on a previous character or story plot... It happened constantly. They never gave a hoot by my estimation.
I believe everyone is missing the point here. The announcement has said there is no more EU. There is canon and there is Legends. Essentially everything we have seen as the EU is now Legends. Canon now consists of the films, CW TV series, Rebels TV series, the upcoming Darth Maul comic and everything else coming forward, essentially starting in 2015. Everything else is dead and gone. It isn't a situation of Mara Jade, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo still exist until Episode VII says so. It is a situation of that they no longer exist unless a new movie, novel, comic, etc. says they exist. Even then, the most likely won't exist in the form we have previously seen them.
What was the EU is now called Legends...essentially if the Star Wars universe was real, these would be works of fiction that Han, Luke and Leia would read. Disney may pull something from these sources, like with Seinar, but that does not make ever mention of Seiner in the old EU canon.
As for keeping everything in continuity, I think they did a lot better job than you give them credit for. For the most part, Lucas is the one who threw the biggest monkey wrenches into continuity. The Clone War series is the largest example. To be fair, Lucas always said he reserved the right to do so. Take a look a Nathan P. Butler's Star Wars Timeline Gold to see just how much of a timeline the old EU covers. It is pretty staggering. He has hundreds upon hundreds of pages of timeline info.
This announcement really didn't surprise me. Disney paid a lot of money for Star Wars. I would think that movies may be the route for the biggest return on their investment. It doesn't make sense to chain themselves to an existing EU. People have been saying for years that Zahn's Thrawn trilogy would make great movies. While they are great novels, I don't think there is that much action overall for a trilogy of movies. Most of the time, a novel ends up being better that the movie that adapts it. With rumors of a Han Solo movie or a Boba Fett movie, it makes sense to dump any previous material. A fresh start like this makes the most sense. It also removes any ambiguity going forward. If Disney allows something to be created, whether it be a movie, novel, comic, tv show or game, what happens is canon in the Star Wars universe. I much prefer that over the levels of canon that were required under the old EU.