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Disney Buys Lucasfilm and the Star Wars Sequels Begin

 

Those of us who grew up with Star Wars the first time around remember how disheartened we were after Return of the Jedi when George Lucas said there wouldn’t be more movies in the series until that far-off future year of 1990. Those who also remember when there were supposed to be nine films, including a sequel trilogy… well, we pretty much came to terms with that over the years, since it’s not like there wasn’t plenty of other Star Wars stuff to go around.

Today, though, the inner child revives, and Mark Hamill’s agent is likely doing cartwheels – not only did Disney just buy Lucasfilm in a four billion dollar deal, but they also announced they’re targeting Star Wars Episode VII for 2015. That’s right: Star Wars Episode VII, to be followed not just by VIII and IX, but “a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years,” according to Disney CEO Bob Iger.

And let’s not forget that Lucasfilm isn’t just Star Wars. Does this mean that if there’s another Indiana Jones adventure, it’ll be the Sleeping Beauty castle that morphs into scenery rather than the Paramount mountain? Could Marvel be planning a more faithful Howard the Duck reboot, possibly as a Disney animated feature? Entire theme parks based on the galaxy far, far away? Will Disney see a value in spinning Red Tails into a franchise? Is Lucas now planning on making those experimental movies on is own that he’s teased for so long? Will the sequel movies incorporate or ignore such characters from the Expanded Universe canon as Jaina Solo, Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn?

If you’re a toy collector, better make some room. And check out our gallery of some of the best Disney/Star Wars mash-ups to date.

UPDATE: We asked Dark Horse to comment on the future of Star Wars comics, since Disney owns Marvel, but Star Wars is currently at DH. Mike Richardson, president of Dark Horse Comics, Inc., responded: “Dark Horse and Lucasfilm have a strong partnership which spans over 20 years, and has produced multiple characters and story lines which are now part of the Star Wars lore. Star Wars will be with us for the near future. Obviously, this deal changes the landscape, so we’ll all have to see what it means for the future.”

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Comments

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  2. peter parker says:

    h u n t e r r o c k s !
    h u n t e r r o c k s !

    h u n t e r r o c k s ! ! !

  3. Charlie Blimey says:

    Do you remember that episode of South Park where Lucas and Speilberg are caught raping a stormtrooper? Matt and Trey should make a special edition where they take cruelly remove Steven and replace him with Donald Duck…

  4. Disney has had success with Marvel, but remember they also brought us Tron: Legacy, which most people consider a huge dissapointment. Still, getting Lucas out of the picture means new SW movies won’t be endlessly tinkered with (i.e. ruined) for decades.

  5. Stephen says:

    can we finally get an original cut of star wars released now?

  6. peter parker says:

    When I mentioned the positive aspects of bringing Kevin Smith into the project, I was specifically referring to his writing skills.

    check out a sample of his superman script http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/superman-lives-script.html

    and then check out some youtube clips where he discusses his involvement and then non-involvement.

    Pretty fascinating.

  7. Pedak says:

    Maybe he could write the script but in no way should Kevin Smith be allowed to direct.

  8. Tickles says:

    Not Kevin Smith. Please.

  9. smodcast says:

    i agree with the above comment, let a creative mind like Kevin Smith get involved in a project like this and watch the fanboy really come to the forefront.

    peace!!!!

    h

  10. peter parker says:

    well, my son called me earlier and he was a’ squealin’ just like i would have been, back when i was his age.

    it will be very interesting indeed to see if they are able to pull of the almost unimaginable task of living up to the hype of star wars.

    it’s doable, but in the age of the internet it will be very interesting to watch things develop.

    .

  11. JetpackBlues says:

    Plot device, right here: http://goo.gl/pc1vt

    Bring it back to canon. Start the new stories off from this point. I wouldn’t dare say ‘reboot’ it, just get it back on track.

  12. Amy says:

    Very true. Lol i’ve always had my dream scriptwriters for the sequels(Zahn and Stackpole) but never thought about the directors.

  13. JetpackBlues says:

    As long as he doesn’t make the next Sith ‘Darth Cock-Knocker’ we should be okay.

  14. Amy says:

    I don’t know if Smith has it in him though, I love him and all, but…I just don’t know.

  15. JetpackBlues says:

    You’d better bet your sweet ass Uncle George took the $4B and still kept the merchandising out of Duckman & Mouschwitz’s hands.

    As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I have VERY mixed feelings about this. The upside is Uncle George won’t be directing any more SW movies. Which EVERYBODY complained about over the prequels.

    Avengers aside, don’t you DARE let Joss Whedon anywhere near a SW movie. Get Kevin Smith. Let him become the next Peter Jackson-esque visionary for the SW Universe. Shit, he’s been waiting for this opportunity!

    Before the LOTR series, everybody thought Jackson was a hack. Now he’s on his second Tolkien trilogy that people are buying tickets for a month early. Smith should get the same chance to make SW great. And not for kids, by kids, like the prequel trilogy was.

  16. John48221 says:

    @nate If Disney still loves money they will.

  17. Nate says:

    Will we FINALLY get the original unaltered trilogy on home video?

  18. Amy says:

    Ooh didn’t scroll down and see this conversation. I’m excited, yet nervous about this news, lifelong SW fan(wearing a yoda tshirt right now).

  19. Dakota says:

    There better not be a Malcolm solo. There is jacen,anakin, and Jaina. It better be kept that way. It’s sad to see that dark horse will be edged out by marvel. Seeing as how marvel did Star Wars comics before and that didn’t work out. Dark horse truly understood the Star Wars expanded universe. Now it’s sad to see that they will be ruining it.

  20. Frank says:

    This is one of the best Nerdverssations all year.

  21. Gwif says:

    And for the love of Pete, bring back Lawrence Kasdan!

  22. Gwif says:

    HELL YES let’s see Hamill, Ford and Fisher together again!

  23. Neesee says:

    I’m looking forward to a new Star Wars film that Lucas doesn’t have absolute control over.

  24. Hmmm…Dark Horse Comics has the comics license so does this mean Marvel gets that license back?

  25. Joshua says:

    In light of recent events you need to get George Lucas on the Nerdist podcast…

  26. Nick says:

    This is awesome. Very excited! I would love to see a Joss Whedon take on Star Wars, but that doesn’t seem likely (given the proximity of Avengers 2). My bet at the current time is on Jon Favreau for director.

    Does this mean we get old Luke, Han, and Leia? Wasn’t that the plan originally?

  27. RG says:

    Wait… May have been wrong about the cartoons. Oh well.

  28. RG says:

    The thing that makes me wanna yell at people is when they SINCERELY seem to believe that it means Mickey Mouse will be in Star Wars. I wanna ask them, “Really? Were the Incredibles in The Avengers?” I mean, Marvel cartoons are still on Cartoon Network (Turner), not the Disney Channel. For that reason, Clone Wars probably won’t even be disrupted. I could see the new Star Wars Detours thing winding up elsewhere, but they haven’t disturbed established stuff like that.

    Ugh. Stupidity bothers a man.

  29. Avengers 2 Luke finds out Thanos is his grandpa!

  30. RG says:

    Yeah guys, enough with the Pavlovian responses to Star Wars. It’s not automatically bad… with GL as a creative consultant, he might be able to impart his spirit without doing all the bad directing.

    I think some people may not get just how many good things Disney produces… they have some great quality control, especially in cooperation with their subsidiaries (like, yunno, what’s it called… MARVEL).

  31. Shayde says:

    I hope Joss Whedon gets first refusal to direct.

    And they cast Nathan Fillion as Han’s son Malcolm Solo.

  32. SharkPadlock says:

    Look at what Disney has done with Pixar. And how they’ve done with Marvel. Now Lucasfilm?
    Oh my. The best may be yet to come.

  33. Dan Lokhorst says:

    All the Star Wars stuff I like still exists, so whatever. If they keep making movies they’ll make a good one by accident at some point.

  34. Jim T. says:

    I am honestly excited. So many others have done wonderful things with the IP (Star Wars Clone Wars Animated Series, the Micro Series, the Old Republic Setting) that having this in the hands of talented people at Disney is gonna be a really good thing.

  35. Julie says:

    My first reaction was “NOOOO!” but after thinking about it, I think it could be a good thing. IMO, the biggest problem with the last three movies was that Lucas had become too powerful for anyone to disagree with. No one could tell him that Jar-Jar or midichlorians sucked beyond the telling of it, or that some of the accents might come off a wee bit racist. Maybe now that the franchise is in the hands of a *team* once again, there could be something good to come out of it. I was nervous about them acquiring the Muppets, and that’s turned out to be good.

  36. Heysum Ali says:

    I was okay about this,. until I read episode VII in 2015. And a new sequel every 4 to 5 years?! AWHAAAAAAT. Apparently selling merchandise isn’t enough for Disney. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh well. I’ll just ignore the new stuff.

  37. Juan says:

    uuuuuuuuugggghhhhhhh……