ME: I thought the Story Group was to prevent stuff like this from happening:
“I was annoyed to find out somebody had written an origin story for K-2SO, and it’s like, no, I’m not paying attention to that.” - Tony Gilroy
PH: Ask me about it in a month or so; long story short is, had anyone known there would be an Andor TV show at the time, that comic would never have happened.
ME: Sorry, I remember you said “July-ish”, I just discovered this quote. It’s just that I don’t want any more stories on the chopping block and I’m worried that this sets up a precedent that “comics don’t matter” when it comes to continuity.
PH: It’s always going to be a case-by-case basis when stuff like this comes up as opposed to some precedent-setting decisions. It was pretty unusual circumstances, all around. Given how deep some of the pulls Andor made from publishing, I would hope that would help illustrate this.
PH: This is related:
PH: I think a thing that people intrinsically know about multimedia IP though it’s not said is if it ends up in a book it’s because there were no plans to put it on-screen. In the days when Star Wars really only had one filmmaker behind it, that’s what was behind a lot of publishing…
PH: …because the filmmaker in question made it pretty clear where he was focused on. So the print story went in the places he didn’t. But his move to television changed things quite a bit in 2008. If those plans were known, the publishing from the 2002-2007 would have been very different!
PH: And that, in a nutshell, was the thinking behind the whole EU/Legends thing of a decade+ ago. Where might filmmakers go in the future? Turns out, “anywhere.” It’s not that complicated a reason, but there it is.
PH: (All this to say is be wary of people trying to sell you more complicated explanations.)
PH: Was reminded of an example of this from 2000-2002. The increased presence of Aurra Sing in the Dark Horse comics run led to a lot of online speculation that she would figure prominently in Episode II, when it meant the exact opposite. She was free to use in the comic by not being in any plans.
-One month later-
ME: If Andor S1 went out of its way to clean up the contradiction about Cassian’s birthplace (retconning Fest to being a false cover identity), then why didn’t S2 do the same kind of “Wecacoe was a cover up” could’ve saved us continuity nuts the headache.
PH: I can’t really speak to the writers’ specific decisions, but from my POV those episodes were already pretty packed with things they needed to accomplish that anything like that would seem extraneous. I did appreciate the nod to Fest in early S1. That wasn’t required, but it was a nice touch.
ME: Is the whole “Wecacoe mission being a cover up” a good explanation?
PH: We don’t know yet. I’ll leave to a storyteller to thread that needle in the right place.
ME: Will the artbook explain more about this? I find it confusing that an entire story, not just small details like Kanan during Order 66 or whatever, but a full story gets retconned years after LF said all post-2014 stories across all mediums will be canon (unless stated otherwise like the Lego shorts).
PH: I’m not aware of what’s in the art book yet. Again, a decade ago was relatively simpler since a boom of streaming production wasn’t in the cards at the time. (Not to mention the complication of everyone having different definitions of what canon means).
ME: What exactly do you mean by “unusual circumstances”?
PH: That a whole unexpected show came out of a film production.
ME: I guess I’ll settle for the cover-up headcanon, even though I still think it’s a huge missed opportunity for an otherwise great show not to acknowledge it, despite doing a similar solution for a discrepancy in S1. At least the LFSG is being transparent about continuity, unlike the MCU with AoS. -(PH liked)-
ME: Considering the LFSG’s impressive track record when it comes to dealing with retcons, I trust they’ll figure something out, maybe in a future reference book or something. -(PH liked)-
ME: Did the mixed reception of the comic play a part in the retcon? Like, suppose it was a massive best seller/critically acclaimed story, would Gilroy have been required to include it then?
PH: It had no bearing.
ME: So “canon tiers” that were used in Legends never went away?
PH: They were only used for bookkeeping and to generate lists from tagged sources. These decisions are made case by case.
ME: Do you think it’s also possible that in 1BBY, Andor lost K-2SO and had to go to Wecacoe with alien twins to get him back? That way, the comic could still be canon, except it won’t be an origin for K2 anymore, but the mission, characters, and most of the events will be the same.
PH: I’m sure there’s all sorts of adventures that could happen off-screen.
ME: Was it the fact that it was a one shot made it easy to disregard? If it was, say, a six issue mini series that had crossovers with other stories, would that have complicated things.
PH: That’s getting too hypothetical. I can’t imagine it being anything but a one shot and even that turned out to be too much.
ME: Was the comic author informed that his story would be retconned?
PH: I do not know.
ME: When discrepancies do appear, does the story group offer the production team solutions to fix them?
PH: I can only speak for myself. If I’m advising on a production and see something at the script level where I can help, I’ll make a note of it and suggest alternatives if there are any.
ME: Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this so far the only story since the 2014 reset that has been retconned entirely, or were there other ones as well?
PH: I can’t think of any others quite like this. And there’s still the matter of how/if/when it gets resolved if “entirely” even applies.
ME: Are you optimistic it will be resolved, or are you not at liberty to say yet?
PH: I tend not to talk about anything that isn’t already out.
ME: At what point does it go from "sure, you can retcon it" to "sorry, but this story's already been told"?
PH: I can only advise. I have no authority over production.
ME: So, hypothetically, let's say a future on screen production team wants to contradict several publishing stories, ones that have been referenced in multiple other productions. Are they allowed to ignore your (the SG) advice on how to not make things complicated continuity wise?
PH: I am not part of production, so I can’t speak to the specifics of how they operate.
ME: Was a retcon like this always going to be inevitable?
PH: Personally, I think so. And I'm sure it will happen again. You try to avoid it, but it's not a priority enough to supersede what creatives need to do.
ME: So who steps in if a creator wants to tell a story that'll contradict multiple publication ones?
PH: That would be on the production side. The development team works with creatives to help them craft such things. I am not part of that beyond advising if they request it.
ME: It's just that I'm worried that a future creator will go like, "if Gilroy got away with retconning this one comic, then I can get away with retconning this entire book or cartoon episode" and that's honestly scary for a canon nut like myself.
PH: I don’t think anyone would set out to do that. It’s not done arbitrarily and has to have a good reason. But art is art. It goes where it goes.
ME: I remember hearing about some Legends writers deliberately contradicting each other out of ego and spite.
PH: Sounds pretty gossipy.
ME: Yeah, it was probably made up by stubborn fans.
ME: I apologize if I keep bringing this topic up. I've had bad experiences with certain retcons (example: it was really frustrating when the MCU ignored Agents of SHIELD despite "itsallconnected" being heavily marketed) and I just had a lot of questions about the Story Group.
PH: Oh no worries. There's just not much more for me to add other than what I've said as far as how these things come together. I did not know that about MCU/Agents of SHIELD.
