Star Wars expanded to other media
Although the "Star Wars" film series itself has never been rebooted, a decision was made, due to works set after the original trilogy that contradict and deviate from Lucas' own view of the "Star Wars" story, to discard the "EU" works from the franchise canon. Lucas decided to cease creative involvement after selling, in October 2012, the "Star Wars" franchise as well as Lucasfilm (the production company of "Star Wars") to The Walt Disney Company. When Disney began development of a sequel trilogy of films and other works, and needed its films to have full creative freedom unbound by the "EU", nearly all "EU" works were removed from "Star Wars" franchise canon and rebranded as "Star Wars Legends". (The two 2008 "EU" works which remained in canon were and its .)
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Wells was killed in a helicopter crash in 1994. Shortly thereafter, Katzenberg resigned and formed DreamWorks SKG because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' now-available post (Katzenberg had also sued over the terms of his contract). Instead, Eisner recruited his friend Michael Ovitz, one of the founders of the Creative Artists Agency, to be President, with minimal involvement from Disney's board of directors (which at the time included Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, Hilton Hotels Corporation CEO Stephen Bollenbach, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, Yale dean Robert A. M. Stern, and Eisner's predecessors Raymond Watson and Card Walker). Ovitz lasted only 14 months and left Disney in December 1996 via a "no fault termination" with a severance package of $38 million in cash and 3 million stock options worth roughly $100 million at the time of Ovitz's departure. The Ovitz episode engendered a long running derivative suit, which finally concluded in June 2006, almost 10 years later. Chancellor William B. Chandler III of the Delaware Court of Chancery, despite describing Eisner's behavior as falling "far short of what shareholders expect and demand from those entrusted with a fiduciary position..." found in favor of Eisner and the rest of the Disney board because they had not violated the letter of the law (namely, the duty of care owed by a corporation's officers and board to its shareholders). Eisner later said, in a 2016 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", that he regretted letting Ovitz go.
In 1994, Eisner attempted to purchase NBC from General Electric (GE), but the deal failed due to GE wanting to keep 51 percent ownership of the network. Disney acquired many other media sources during the decade, including a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1995 which brought broadcast network ABC and its assets, including the A&E Television Networks and ESPN networks, into the Disney fold. Eisner felt that the purchase of ABC was an important investment to keep Disney surviving and allowing it to compete with international multimedia conglomerates. Disney lost a $10.4 million lawsuit in September 1997 to Marsu B.V. over Disney's failure to produce as contracted 13 half-hour "Marsupilami" cartoon shows. Instead, Disney felt other internal "hot properties" deserved the company's attention.