The rumors floating around about a series of standalone Star Wars films have now been confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger: Yes, these are really, truly in development. Then again, of course there are standalone Star Wars films in the works. Disney owns both Lucasfilm and Marvel, and Marvel’s been doing a smashing job with their movie lineup. It only makes sense that Disney, wanting the same success for Lucasfilm, would take the same approach with Star Wars. Let’s all just pray they actually focus on good characters.
Here’s what Iger told CNBC specifically about the standalone films:
I can confirm to you today that in fact we are working on a few standalone films. Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are both working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga. We still plan to make Star Wars 7, 8, and 9 roughly over a six-year period of time, starting in 2015, but there are going to be a few other films released in that period too.
This could either be really, really cool, or really, really awful. It all depends on exactly which “characters” Iger happens to be referring to. It’s pretty obvious that nobody wants a Jar Jar Binks film, for example, but a Boba Fett one would likely print cash for the company.
These are in addition to the usual numbered films, so we’re all in store for a whole mess of Star Wars in the near future. On one hand, yay! More Star Wars! On the other hand, great. We’ve entered into a Guitar Hero situation where they want to keep us strung out on the franchise for as long as they possibly can.
Oh well. More Star Wars!
UPDATE: Hah. As both The Mary Sue and ourselves predicted, EW‘s saying that there’s going to be both a Boba Fett and young Han Solo film. So, those are both things that might be happening. The young Han film would happen between the end of the prequels and beginning of the original films, but the Fett flick seems to be placed solidly between one of the original films. Chances are we’re looking at an adventure between Empire and Jedi.
(CNBC via /Film, image via Scott Beale)
- J.J. Abrams really will direct Star Wars: Episode VII
- The White House’s response to the Death Star petition is everything we’d hoped it would be
- Gotten engaged George Lucas has
