Fans have launched a petition to get Karen Traviss to return and finish her masterful series of Star Wars novels featuring the Imperial Commandos. But she tells io9 it's too late, and explains what happened to her Boba Fett novel.
The fans over at Imperial Shipyards launched a petition asking George Lucas to let Traviss write her planned final volume in the Republic/Imperial Commando series. Traviss blogged a while ago that this novel wouldn't be happening, partly due to contractual problems and partly due to contradictions with the animated Clone Wars series' portrayal of the Mandalorians. We contacted Traviss to find out more.
Is it really too late for a final Imperial Commando novel? Can you tell us anything more about the business considerations that made this final novel impossible? Did you ever have any conversations with Dave Filoni and the other people working on Clone Wars about the direction they wanted to take the Mandalorians in?
I'm touched that fans care that much about the Commando series, but I called it a day with Star Wars across the board because of contractual differences with the publisher - in other words, it was about pay and working practices, and obviously it wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss that. The impact of new canon on the Commando series was a separate and secondary issue, so even if that changed, I'm afraid it wouldn't alter the overall situation for me. You ask if I discussed the direction the Mandalorian canon would take with the TV team, and fans have asked me that same question - no, I had no direct access to or discussion with the Clone Wars team while I was writing the Clone Wars tie-ins or the Commando series, and that's common practice in the tie-in industry. Whatever information I was given came through the publisher, and I put my views on that information to the editor.
You also mentioned a Boba Fett novel that you're not going to do now. That's a separate book from the final Imperial Commando book, right? You mentioned that was also cancelled because of canon clashes with the upcoming TV series — does that mean Clone Wars, or the new live-action show?
Yes, the Boba Fett book was totally separate, nothing to do with Imperial Commando. The cancellation was due to the live action show, but that's all I know.