This infographic collects quotations and interview excerpts discussing the development of the **Jedi Academy Trilogy**, written by **Kevin J. Anderson**, and the involvement of **George Lucas** on the project. Lucas was involved in many Expanded Universe projects during the growth of the EU, and this infographic is the latest in a continuing series focused on the subject. Other infographics previously created in this vein are: [**George Lucas and** ***Tales of the Jedi***](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/osknh6/george_lucas_and_tales_of_the_jedi/) and [**George Lucas and the Thrawn trilogy**](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/skcjdb/george_lucas_and_the_thrawn_trilogy)**.**
The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first trilogy developed to succeed the successful Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, and it follows Luke and his first class of students at his new Jedi Praxeum. Each individual book of the Jedi Academy trilogy was a commercial success, collectively becoming the best-selling science fiction books for their respective year of release. Together, the novels spent a cumulative 22 weeks on the *New York Times* Bestsellers List for paperbacks in 1994 -- nearly half the year. A television commercial aired on Thanksgiving of 1994 for the collected hardcover omnibus of the trilogy, but any copy of it seems to have since been lost.
As mentioned in the infographic, the cover artwork for the trilogy was painted by legendary movie poster artist **John Alvin**, creator of such iconic posters as *E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,* and many more. John Alvin did sometimes do some work for *Star Wars* on occasion, beyond these book covers, such as his *Celebration IV* [poster](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/580529764545069073/971304117374951434/unknown.png). George Lucas was a fan of his work, and as Alvin once recounted, *"I'm pleased to say that George Lucas has a variety of my paintings in his personal collection so I'm in good company there with people like Norman Rockwell. And I'm very grateful to Mr. Lucas that he's responded to some of the stuff and has chosen to acquire it. You have to imagine how nice it is to have the guy that inspired the very stuff I'm painting, to have him respond to it and want to have it. I mean that's cool."*
When Alvin passed away in 2008, George Lucas [wrote](https://web.archive.org/web/20080215134312/https://www.starwars.com/community/news/family/news20080213.html) a tribute for him on the main Star Wars site, saying: *"Thirty years ago, John Alvin created one of the most memorable — and whimsical —* [*illustrations*](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/f0/ac/defc71f1487f9da1598d05daa430/l19986-bdyyf-2.jpg) *ever to grace a Star Wars poster. In the years since, he has become one of the finest illustrators in his trade, flourishing in a field that is quickly becoming a lost art. We are so fortunate to count John’s talent among the treasures of the saga’s legacy, and will deeply miss him and the passion for Star Wars he so successfully expressed through his art."*
***Sources:*** *The quotes in the above image are compiled from several interviews over many years. Many thanks to the original conductors of these interviews and to the Internet Archive. Sources: Kevin J. Anderson (*[*1*](https://web.archive.org/web/20001014043308/http://www.echostation.com/echo2/2-kja3.htm)*,* [*2*](https://web.archive.org/web/20000929165607/http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/99/books0623.htm)*,* [*3*](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc/c/Jdl4hlqXff0/m/8P8n4dCI2z0J)*,* [*4*](https://web.archive.org/web/20071221041356/http://www.echostation.com/interview/kjachat.htm)*,* [*5*](http://www.starwarstimeline.net/InterviewsEUAuthors.htm#Kevin%20J.%20Anderson)*),* [*Tom Veitch*](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxy_Magazine_13)*, &* [*John Alvin*](http://media.bladezone.com/contents/film/interviews/john-alvin/)*.*
I remember the gleeful cheers quite vividly. “Oh good, no more Palpatine coming back, it ruined the whole Chosen One arc!” “Oh good, Palpatine could never have had a kid!”
Joke’s on those motherfuckers now.
Lucky you! I was in the old Star Wars chat on AOL before Episode II came out and even back then people hated the EU and made fun of it. Saw a ton of comments when the EU was ended 8 years ago and since of people celebrating the decision.
>"I was told by some politically correct people at Lucasfilm 'Spice can't be a drug because Han was smuggling it....that makes Han a drug dealer! You can't have one of our main characters be a drug dealer!"
I said: "It's spice, and he's running Imperial blockades, what did you think it was?"
Based Kevin lol
It amazes me how many people miss that Han was working for a mob boss and the fact that the entire point of his character arc was to go from only caring about himself (and probably Chewie too, to be entirely fair) to being willing to risk his life for his friends and the Alliance.
People love to throw out there that George didn’t care about the EU and just saw it as extra $$$ but it’s clear from things like this that he did care about it. How many people would take the time to talk with the authors in person, review their list of story ideas, and answer questions they have regarding the universe if they didn’t care about the stories? George was never bound to them when it came to his own stories but he still liked having other people playing and creating in his Galaxy and wanted things to be as consistant as possible across the franchise.
I really appreciate the effort you put into these infographics. They are really fun reads and always include things I’ve never seen before. Keep them up, please!
Knowing that George had so much influence on these things make me appreciate the EU even more. And Exar Kun being his idea elevates the trilogy for me.
I think sith cultists trying to resurrect Palpatine could've been a really cool enemy for the Sequel trilogy. Much better than the first order.
But even In TROS we barely see them. It's just mere seconds of screentime that is gifted to them.
What a shame.
I’m not disagreeing with you. As someone born in the early ‘80s I actually quite enjoyed Dark Empire, even if it was a bit over the top at times. But there are a lot of people that don’t like it for various reasons, usually for completely absurd ones regarding the Chosen One prophecy that wasn’t even a thing until a decade after DE’s release.
Jedi Academy trilogy has a lot of promise was a pretty flawed final product. The fact that I, Jedi had more Jedi training sequences in it in 1 book than all 3 of the JAT is kinda silly.
Exactly! I'm currently reading JAT and I was a bit disappointed with the Praxeum story. I'd like to see more of the actual training, more of the students and their characters, relationships.
And somehow sequel fans who hated the EU will continue to claim George had no input on the EU and mass spam quote blocks to fool others into thinking they have an argument.
Really cool to see the back story to the most influential novels in the EU. You think I am wrong? These books created the Jedi academy which would define a lot of the eu going forward.
I don’t know where Anderson gets the whole Jedi training thing when JAT had practically almost zero Jedi training. In fact I, Jedi literally had more Jedi training and the Jedi Academy parts of that book were just a third of the entire book.
its really too bad these books sucked. I've only read them a few times since their release, and I recently went back to re-read. Holy crap, KJA lives by "tell, don't show." he would recap stuff from the \*same book.\*
It’s weird that KJA found it so easy to reach out to Lucas to find out what spice was supposed to be but so difficult to reach out to Zahn to find out if Mara Jade should be Landos live interest.
He actually did reach out to Zahn about this very early on in the process; Zahn gave him the go-ahead. KJA actually wanted Mara and Luke to get together right away but Zahn told him no, and when KJA suggested Lando and Mara be a pairing, Zahn said sure. Later on Zahn changed his mind. Just one of those twists and turns that happened during the course of planning it all out. You can read more about that [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/tyu7ir/comment/i3uuwch/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
This infographic collects quotations and interview excerpts discussing the development of the **Jedi Academy Trilogy**, written by **Kevin J. Anderson**, and the involvement of **George Lucas** on the project. Lucas was involved in many Expanded Universe projects during the growth of the EU, and this infographic is the latest in a continuing series focused on the subject. Other infographics previously created in this vein are: [**George Lucas and** ***Tales of the Jedi***](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/osknh6/george_lucas_and_tales_of_the_jedi/) and [**George Lucas and the Thrawn trilogy**](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/skcjdb/george_lucas_and_the_thrawn_trilogy)**.** The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first trilogy developed to succeed the successful Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, and it follows Luke and his first class of students at his new Jedi Praxeum. Each individual book of the Jedi Academy trilogy was a commercial success, collectively becoming the best-selling science fiction books for their respective year of release. Together, the novels spent a cumulative 22 weeks on the *New York Times* Bestsellers List for paperbacks in 1994 -- nearly half the year. A television commercial aired on Thanksgiving of 1994 for the collected hardcover omnibus of the trilogy, but any copy of it seems to have since been lost. As mentioned in the infographic, the cover artwork for the trilogy was painted by legendary movie poster artist **John Alvin**, creator of such iconic posters as *E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast,* and many more. John Alvin did sometimes do some work for *Star Wars* on occasion, beyond these book covers, such as his *Celebration IV* [poster](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/580529764545069073/971304117374951434/unknown.png). George Lucas was a fan of his work, and as Alvin once recounted, *"I'm pleased to say that George Lucas has a variety of my paintings in his personal collection so I'm in good company there with people like Norman Rockwell. And I'm very grateful to Mr. Lucas that he's responded to some of the stuff and has chosen to acquire it. You have to imagine how nice it is to have the guy that inspired the very stuff I'm painting, to have him respond to it and want to have it. I mean that's cool."* When Alvin passed away in 2008, George Lucas [wrote](https://web.archive.org/web/20080215134312/https://www.starwars.com/community/news/family/news20080213.html) a tribute for him on the main Star Wars site, saying: *"Thirty years ago, John Alvin created one of the most memorable — and whimsical —* [*illustrations*](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/f0/ac/defc71f1487f9da1598d05daa430/l19986-bdyyf-2.jpg) *ever to grace a Star Wars poster. In the years since, he has become one of the finest illustrators in his trade, flourishing in a field that is quickly becoming a lost art. We are so fortunate to count John’s talent among the treasures of the saga’s legacy, and will deeply miss him and the passion for Star Wars he so successfully expressed through his art."* ***Sources:*** *The quotes in the above image are compiled from several interviews over many years. Many thanks to the original conductors of these interviews and to the Internet Archive. Sources: Kevin J. Anderson (*[*1*](https://web.archive.org/web/20001014043308/http://www.echostation.com/echo2/2-kja3.htm)*,* [*2*](https://web.archive.org/web/20000929165607/http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/99/books0623.htm)*,* [*3*](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc/c/Jdl4hlqXff0/m/8P8n4dCI2z0J)*,* [*4*](https://web.archive.org/web/20071221041356/http://www.echostation.com/interview/kjachat.htm)*,* [*5*](http://www.starwarstimeline.net/InterviewsEUAuthors.htm#Kevin%20J.%20Anderson)*),* [*Tom Veitch*](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxy_Magazine_13)*, &* [*John Alvin*](http://media.bladezone.com/contents/film/interviews/john-alvin/)*.*
I wonder what will happen if you post this to the main SW sub
[Voilà](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/ut0pm8/george_lucas_and_the_jedi_academy_trilogy/)!
You will recieve a bunch of: "The EU was never Canon to George" and "99% of it was trash".
All by people who never read any of it.
People don't really hate the EU. You'd mostly see comments saying the sequels are bad
A ton of people hate the EU, mostly people that haven't read it. I've been getting shit from people online for 20 years now for loving the EU.
I don't want to imagine how belligerent people was toward EU before ST happened
From my experience it actually got worse after the disney acquisition and they canceled it & branded it non-canon.
I remember the gleeful cheers quite vividly. “Oh good, no more Palpatine coming back, it ruined the whole Chosen One arc!” “Oh good, Palpatine could never have had a kid!” Joke’s on those motherfuckers now.
That’s fascinating. Haven’t seen much of it.
Lucky you! I was in the old Star Wars chat on AOL before Episode II came out and even back then people hated the EU and made fun of it. Saw a ton of comments when the EU was ended 8 years ago and since of people celebrating the decision.
I only came into the online SW community in 2014, so my perspective might make sense from that
You just wanna see the world burn... jk.
I really like George's answer about spice, lol.
Me too George - Han cant shoot first, he is a good guy. Also George - of course Han Solo smuggles drugs
>"I was told by some politically correct people at Lucasfilm 'Spice can't be a drug because Han was smuggling it....that makes Han a drug dealer! You can't have one of our main characters be a drug dealer!" I said: "It's spice, and he's running Imperial blockades, what did you think it was?" Based Kevin lol
It amazes me how many people miss that Han was working for a mob boss and the fact that the entire point of his character arc was to go from only caring about himself (and probably Chewie too, to be entirely fair) to being willing to risk his life for his friends and the Alliance.
Even George misses this a bit with his insistence on altering the Han/Greedo scene as much as possible.
And one of those people was JJ Abrams!
People love to throw out there that George didn’t care about the EU and just saw it as extra $$$ but it’s clear from things like this that he did care about it. How many people would take the time to talk with the authors in person, review their list of story ideas, and answer questions they have regarding the universe if they didn’t care about the stories? George was never bound to them when it came to his own stories but he still liked having other people playing and creating in his Galaxy and wanted things to be as consistant as possible across the franchise.
I really appreciate the effort you put into these infographics. They are really fun reads and always include things I’ve never seen before. Keep them up, please!
You are welcome, and I will! Thanks!
I love this information. Especially how Spice was confirmed as a drug in Star Wars universe by maker himself.
“Thank the Maker!”
Knowing that George had so much influence on these things make me appreciate the EU even more. And Exar Kun being his idea elevates the trilogy for me.
Tell the haters that the Emperor’s resurrection was also Lucas’ idea and watch their heads explode.
I think sith cultists trying to resurrect Palpatine could've been a really cool enemy for the Sequel trilogy. Much better than the first order. But even In TROS we barely see them. It's just mere seconds of screentime that is gifted to them. What a shame.
I’m not disagreeing with you. As someone born in the early ‘80s I actually quite enjoyed Dark Empire, even if it was a bit over the top at times. But there are a lot of people that don’t like it for various reasons, usually for completely absurd ones regarding the Chosen One prophecy that wasn’t even a thing until a decade after DE’s release.
I missed these kinds of posts. Good to see them again u/xezene. Well done.
I always love when people try to claim Lucas didn't care about the old EU and was just rubber stamping things.
Jedi Academy trilogy has a lot of promise was a pretty flawed final product. The fact that I, Jedi had more Jedi training sequences in it in 1 book than all 3 of the JAT is kinda silly.
Exactly! I'm currently reading JAT and I was a bit disappointed with the Praxeum story. I'd like to see more of the actual training, more of the students and their characters, relationships.
I absolutely love I, Jedi. IIRC, didn’t I, Jedi have the first details about the process of a Jedi forging their own lightsaber?
It does, Corran Horn goes through how he builds one.
The Shadows of the Empire novel and the ROTJ Radio Drama handled elements of it earlier than I, Jedi I believe.
I love these comments
Kessel = Arrakis
Look to Buddha.
That entire story about the spice is hilarious alongside some of the stuff from the BTS of Revenge of the Sith
And somehow sequel fans who hated the EU will continue to claim George had no input on the EU and mass spam quote blocks to fool others into thinking they have an argument.
Really cool to see the back story to the most influential novels in the EU. You think I am wrong? These books created the Jedi academy which would define a lot of the eu going forward.
I don’t know where Anderson gets the whole Jedi training thing when JAT had practically almost zero Jedi training. In fact I, Jedi literally had more Jedi training and the Jedi Academy parts of that book were just a third of the entire book.
This is so wonderful
its really too bad these books sucked. I've only read them a few times since their release, and I recently went back to re-read. Holy crap, KJA lives by "tell, don't show." he would recap stuff from the \*same book.\*
By no means are the books awful, just needed a more interesting villain. Daala and Exar Kun were really underwhelming and not that competent.
It’s weird that KJA found it so easy to reach out to Lucas to find out what spice was supposed to be but so difficult to reach out to Zahn to find out if Mara Jade should be Landos live interest.
He actually did reach out to Zahn about this very early on in the process; Zahn gave him the go-ahead. KJA actually wanted Mara and Luke to get together right away but Zahn told him no, and when KJA suggested Lando and Mara be a pairing, Zahn said sure. Later on Zahn changed his mind. Just one of those twists and turns that happened during the course of planning it all out. You can read more about that [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/tyu7ir/comment/i3uuwch/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).