J.J. Abrams getting rid of TOS merchandise...

Even though the article is a year old, I just read that Bad Robot had a dispute with Star Trek's owner, CBS in terms of the merchandising situation. Apparently, Abrams original idea was to make Star Trek his own and thus release a whole branch of toys/games/series/video games based on "his" version of Star Trek. CBS, however, is still pushing to release merchandise from the original Star Trek series from the 60s. The dispute at play here is that if both universes of Star Trek are released, there would be a clash between seeing William Shatner's Kirk and Chris Pine's Kirk would make people quite confused. In other words, CBS felt that the universe would be in battle with itself.

Granted, there are several items released that are based from the Abramsverse: Star Trek: D.A.C.; Star Trek: The Video Game; several toys and action figures, however it seems like Abrams wanted the franchise to himself. I'm afraid that I would have to take the side of CBS, because it is important for us to have the Star Trek that we all came to know and to shun it out with the Abrams version, it would be forgotten in a sense. Anyway, here is the article.

www.blastr.com/2013-5-16/apparently-jj-abrams-tried-shut-down-all-star-trek-tos-merch

 

^I think you mean Abrams thought the universe would be in battle with itself. He was the one who wanted to shut down all non-Abramsverse merchandising. CBS's policy is that it's fine to have both old and new coexisting.

Over at Pocket Books (which is a division of CBS), they were going to start publishing Abramsverse novels coexisting alongside the Prime-continuity novels; the plan was to distinguish them by the cover art, Shatner vs. Pine and so forth. I was one of the four authors hired to write the books. But the books got cancelled (fortunately after we got paid), probably as a result of the merchandising dispute. Another imprint of Simon & Schuster did publish four Starfleet Academy young-adult novels set in the Abramsverse, but apparently those are no longer being done.

 

It makes sense from a marketing stand point. Disney /Lucasfilm is putting out Rebels, so D/LF tells Hasbro to develop and release Rebels stuff. They also tell them that Original Trilogy stuff is okay because helps hype Episode VII, to quietly develop E VII stuff, and to stop developing and releasing Prequel Trilogy and Expanded Universe stuff. It's the same strategy they've employed since the line came back in 1995 and a movie came out in 1999. Whenever it is a movie year, they Hasbro markets only stuff for that movie (barring the odd exclusive.) so as not to compete with itself. Unfortunately Star Trek can't work that way because one company owns TV and another owns movies and both sell merchandising licenses independently and competitively.

So when STID came out, I walked into a toy store and bought a TOS phaser.

 

This characterization of the apparent if not conspicuous sparsity of nuTrek merchandise, relative to that of oldTrek and say Star Wars, as having been due to a dispute motivated by perceived brand confusion, has indeed been around for a while. Unfortunately, only anonymous source(s) are ever cited.

That doesn't make for a credible story. And when the OP article says "may have" that also means "may not have":

That just means that the reason for the apparent or conspicuous sparsity may or may not be due to other reasons too, such as, oh, disagreement over how much licensing fees should be.

For these reasons, the OP article doesn't constitute evidence of anything. Evidently, no one who really knows what's going on will go on the record. It's somewhat aggravating, because it's really just the rumor mill churning, but it won't go away.

Do you have direct knowledge of this or can you cite a named source? That would be news to me, if you could.

I take it that you don't really know why the books got canceled.

 

No, I was just clarifying what was stated in the article linked above. The original poster said "CBS felt the universe would be in battle with itself," but as I read the article, it was attributing that view to Abrams/Bad Robot. I think the "CBS" there in the first post was simply a typo.

I remain unclear on the reasons to this day.

 

It's pretty telling that this anonymously sourced "news" wasn't reported anywhere else in the entertainment media. Add to that what we now know about Abrams and Star Wars -- that he's only been linked to the one film, not a wider deal with the franchise -- and this story smells like bullshit to me.

 

It seems to me that the Abramsverse of Star Trek is going to be focused just on the films and graphic novels. We all remember how bad the 2013 videogame was...It really pains me to consider selling it.

 

There are ships made by Hotwheels for the new stuff.

 

While this certainly may be the case, it's not completely improbable. I certainly see areas where CBS can give him a hard time in areas that CBS reign over. Star Trek on Television is theirs, and the last thing they would want is to have their intellectual property dictated by a different studio.

It certainly would make sense why he jumped ship when offered the chance for Star Wars. With that franchise, everything that can be newly produced is all under one roof.

 

Jumped ship?!? Seriously??? That makes it sound like he defected!

 

Fans are so territorial.

 

How exactly has Abrams 'jumped ship'? He's still producing Trek 3. His fingerprints will be all over it.

 

Due to confidentiality agreements being so popular in Hollywood, I suspect even if Christopher did know specifics, he would neither be able to confirm nor deny.

 

Is JJ going to have any more control of existing Star Wars merchandising than he did over Star Treks?

 

I don't think so. I think he is only contracted to direct one film.

 

There is a narrative certain people are attached to and it doesn't matter whether it meshes with the facts of the situation or not.

 

I'm several steps removed from Hollywood; my contracts are with Pocket Books, a New York company, and I don't recall if there are any specific confidentiality clauses in them. If I were told something in confidence, I'd treat it as confidential on general principles. Still, if I knew the whole story and couldn't say what it was, I just wouldn't comment. The reason I feel free to participate in this thread at all is that I don't have any secrets to reveal.

 

I wonder if the Nutrek novels being pulled might have something to do with at least two of them from what I remember of their summaries delt with stuff covered in Star Trek Into Darkness.

I.E. Kirk's promotion to captain and how Spock Prime's knowledge of the future and what he's saying about it.