Well, the dark days of having to wait three years between Star Wars instalments are over, with Walt Disney Pictures announcing at CinemaCon yesterday that it plans to release a new Star Wars movie every year, beginning with Star Wars: Episode VII in the summer of 2015.
Since the announcement that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm, we’ve heard rumours about several standalone Star Wars movies which could compliment the upcoming Sequel Trilogy, including Zack Snyder’s samurai-style Jedi epic, and solo movies for Boba Fett, Han Solo and Yoda. So far none of those are confirmed, but it is known that Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) are working on scripts separate from the sequels.
At the moment, all we know for certain about Disney’s Star Wars plans is that Star Trek Into Darkness helmer J.J. Abrams will turn his attention to a galaxy far, far away to direct Episode VII, which has been written by Oscar-winner Michael Arndt (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), who has penned a treatment for Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Disney has said it plans to release the three chapters of the Sequel Trilogy at two-year intervals, so it looks like we can expect the first standalone Star Wars movie to arrive in 2016.
So, who should Disney bring in to direct the first non-Skywalker Star Wars, and which character(s) would you like to see it focusing on? Let us know in the comments…
Originally published April 18, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
