Luke Owen asks an important question…
J.J. Abrams has been praised by critics lucky enough to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens early (including yours truly), but there is something that has been hanging over the film for some time now.
When Disney announced that they were releasing a new series of movies based in the Star Wars Universe, it was assumed that George Lucas would have some involvement. He was never going to direct or write this new trilogy, but he would certainly contribute story ideas of where he would take the series given the chance. After all, these are his characters and who would know them better than him? Since then, as we all now know, Disney rejected all of Lucas’ ideas and have gone off to follow Abrams down a new Yellow Brick Road for the future of Star Wars. Abrams isn’t writing or directing the next couple of movies, but he is there as a Godfather of sorts, similar to how Joss Whedon oversaw all of Marvel’s Phase Two plans or Zack Snyder’s hold over DC’s Extended Universe.
Which then raises an interesting question: if George Lucas isn’t writing or contributing ideas to any of the new Star Wars films – which he created – can they technically be thought of as ‘official’ Star Wars cannon? Is what J.J. Abrams doing with Star Wars: The Force Awakens nothing more than fan-fiction with a Disney backing?
If you’ve been a member of the online film community since the Dawn of the Internet way back in the late 90s, you’ll have read some fan-fiction at some point in your life. Hell, you may have even written some. There are whole communities of writers who share their ideas and takes on their favourite films, TV shows and video games, and those people really believe in their work. Is all of it worth reading? Not really. It would be fair to say that a good 95% of fan-fiction is badly-written garbage, and that’s not even diving into the bizarre world of slash-fiction or even the depths of ‘shipping’. But the point is that these fan-fiction writers believe that – if they were in charge of the outcome of their favourite film, TV show or video game – this is how the story should go. They didn’t have any input from the original creators, nor did they get consent from them. So what makes J.J. Abrams any different?
This point was made recently by Mike Matei over at Cinemassacre, who also noted that the new movie based on Peanuts clearly has not no involvement from original creator Charles M. Shulz (who sadly died in 2000). The film has been written by two of his sons, Craig and Bryan Shulz, and the film is clearly a loving tribute to their father’s work, but without consent or over-seeing from Charles himself, is The Peanuts Movie just fan fiction? Albeit fan-fiction written by direct decedents of the original author? What about everything The Muppets made following the deaths of Jim Henson, Richard Hunt and Jerry Nelson and the departure of other writers such as Frank Oz? Are those films just big budget fan-fiction too? Is Captain America: Civil War a fan-fiction version of Mark Millar’s seminal comic?
As I noted in my review, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a re-packaging of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, but with a load of new faces and older characters re-purposed to take on other roles. With the film set to hit cinemas tonight at midnight, there will be those coming out of the theatre doors who will accuse Abrams of being a ‘lazy writer’ and that he just took one of Lucas’ stories and changed things ever so slightly so that it feels like a new story he came up with himself. And now ask yourself, have you ever heard someone say that about a piece of fan-fiction? Of course you have.
What about sequels not written by the original creator? Horror fans constantly denounce A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge – the first movie made without Wes Craven – as non-cannon because the character of Freddy does not share the same characteristics he displayed in the original. In the documentary Never Sleep Again, Craven questions the motives of Freddy and says that ‘his Freddy’ would never try and get into the real world. Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham was similarly dismissive of the Friday the 13th movies he didn’t have any involvement in, particularly about the look of Jason Voorhees. So much so that when we gained the series back at the end of the 1980s, his first directive for Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday director Adam Marcus was to “get him out of the hockey mask” because that wasn’t ‘his Jason’. With that in mind, should movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge or Friday the 13th Part III be labeled as fan-fiction as they didn’t meet the approval of the original creators?
At what point do the two lines cross? Are works like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Peanuts Movie and Muppets Most Wanted exempt because they’re made by movie studios who hire professional writers who know how to spell check? Do we look past sequels like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge simply because they’re officially released? Who is the real keyholder to what is cannon and what isn’t? Are all reboots, sequels, remakes and comic book adaptations just fan-fiction on a big budget?
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and a contributor for Flickering Myth TV. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
Originally published December 16, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
