Your spoilers belong to us: Disney delays tie-in novel for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Director J.J. Abrams has addressed this pestilence with a Galactic Empire-like iron fist, and yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another potential spoiler that met the same fate as Alderaan.

You know those tie-in novels that release alongside most major motion pictures? The ones that a small percentage of the movie-going population reads in tandem with seeing the film? Well, if you’re the type of person who gets excited about them, you’re going to be disappointed this time around.

Amid concern about spoilers, Disney has reached an agreement with Del Rey Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) to delay the release of the hardcover novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The book has been pushed back three full weeks from its original release date of Dec. 18, 2015 — which would have put it on the same trajectory as the film — and will now arrive on Jan. 3, 2016. The text will still be available digitally on Dec. 18, however.

While we understand that these novels give away essentially the entire plot, we have to say, this seems a tad extreme. After all, what’s to stop someone who sees the actual movie from posting the same spoilers on social media? And what’s to stop someone from reading the book online and then spoiling it for those who haven’t seen the film? The only way this makes any sense is if Disney and Lucasfilm are trying to protect people with poor impulse control from themselves. But in the process, they’re asking the people who actually have patience to exercise more of it.

Short of having the entire cast’s memory wiped with an MIB-style memory eraser, we’re not sure that Abrams & Co. can do anything more to prevent spoilers, but we’re willing to bet that this won’t be the last story we post on this subject.

Oh, well. In six short weeks we can dispense with all the secrecy. Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters Dec. 18, 2015.