Devotees of ‘expanded universe’ books say they will publish spoilers of latest film online unless Disney studio agrees to film their favourite stories

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A group of Star Wars fans are threatening to spoil The Force Awakens, the latest episode in the franchise, on social media unless studio Disney agrees to film the saga’s abandoned “expanded universe” stories.

Lucasfilm executives announced in April 2014 that only the six Star Wars feature films, as well as the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, were considered part of the saga’s official canon. They also said that the new series of films, of which JJ Abrams’ The Force Awakens is the first instalment, would not draw on the hundreds of Star Wars novels and comic books published in the wake of success of the original trilogy.

An online organisation going by the moniker The Alliance to Preserve the Expanded Universe has been campaigning ever since for Disney to change its mind, for fear that characters such as Mara Jade, Jacen Solo and Cade Skywalker will be consigned forever to the garbage compactor of history. Now, members have been caught making threats to reveal The Force Awakens’ deepest secrets via social media in a process dubbed “spoiler jihadi” in online circles.

While a number of groups promoting the campaign have already been shut down by Facebook, members are threatening to pop up with spoilers anywhere that Star Wars fans are likely to discuss the new film.

“I have held my vivid tongue waiting for the movie. After it’s released, well, the gates of hell shall be released,” wrote campaigner Roberto Carlos Moscono on Facebook. “I will see it on Wednesday at midnight, so I will have all Thursday to spoil it before anyone else sees it in the US.”

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As with all major blockbusters, Disney has been rigid in its efforts to avoid spoilers hitting the public domain. Most media outlets have been particularly careful not to reveal too much about Abrams’ movie to avoid a backlash from a keen Star Wars fanbase.

A Google Chrome app, the Star Wars Spoiler Blocker extension, promises to save users from the horrors of unwittingly discovering the secrets of The Force Awakens. If they are about to encounter spoiler-heavy content, the user will see only a large box resembling the space saga’s famous opening crawl with the warning “potential spoilers ahead”, rather than the page in question. They will then be given the option to “proceed anyway”, should the temptation to ruin Abrams’ movie for themselves prove overwhelming.