Ophiuchus
Let's not forget ZZ was only created to recoup the less than stellar loss they saw at the end of Z.
It's possible that the renewed Z purposely makes ZZ redundant because it's the way they WANTED it in the first place...
...they didn't
have losses with Zeta. It wound up getting stellar ratings for the time - which currently place it at the
highest most watched Gundam series of all time... if you don't count the 25.7% average viewership that the original Gundam series got while in reruns
(Zeta snagged a 6.6 average, if you wanna know, with ZZ and Seed tying at 6.1). And, of course, model kits took off like mad - merchandising being the key factor in helping Gundam kick serious butt in becoming a multi-million dollar franchise. In fact, although we don't know the real reasons why ZZ came about, I'm quite certain ZZ was greenlit so quickly because ratings were so freaking good!
Tomino's gone on record as saying that the Zeta movies are just a happier ending, because he wanted to go back and see what a "Happy Tomino" ending would be like. So to speak. He still believes the TV series takes priority, though, as does Sunrise
(Bandai, by the by, don't care. They make money anyhow).
And, really, if Sunrise or Bandai wanted to get rid of ZZ, they wouldn't have animated Unicorn. One of the characters comes right from ZZ Gundam, another coming from both ZZ and Zeta. And neither would really be
in Unicorn if ZZ was somehow magically not-canonical for some reason.
And as for the "happier ending" to Zeta, Jan's got it about right. Haman decides that it's just not worth fighting over the Earth and Camille isn't randomly mindfried by Scirocco. This places the Zeta Movies into an alternate continuity, one where Tomino believes that the UC has a chance for true peace.
Maybe not a
good chance, but a chance.
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