During The Walt Disney Company quarterly stockholders call, CEO Bob Iger let everyone know that “at least three” Star Wars spin-offs are currently in development. Speculation about them after the jump.
Iger didn’t divulge much information about these spin-off films but did say they are scheduled to be released alongside the main sequel trilogy, which, honestly, could mean multiple different things.
Does alongside mean the films will be released within the year gaps between the main Episodes? A release schedule like that should just be a given. But, does alongside mean the spin-offs will look at characters involved in Episodes VII-IX more in-depth, much like the current Marvel method? If that is the case the previous thoughts of a Han Solo movie could be thrown out the window since Harrison Ford will be reprising his role in Episode VII. Because do we really want to see Ford at his current age attempting to do all the action we would expect from a Solo film?
Now, thanks to the wonderful idea of having Bob Fett wear a helmet for the original trilogy there is certainly more room to grow that rumored film into one taking place between the first three films. And, of course, there is Yoda. Now that the Expanded Universe has been folded up to make way for the new-hottness, traveling back in time to do a Yoda origin story would allow Lucas Films to start carving out their new expanded stories in the distant past.
All-in-all, we know that more Star Wars movies are set to release this decade and that is something I’m truly excited about. But what about you?! Do you have any ideas on what these spin-off films could be about? Anything you would like to see? Sound off in the comments below!
6 Comments
I would like them to go either far back or far into the future and come up with new characters and stories. That was what I had hope for the new trilogy but with spin-off they now have the chance.. although I doubt it.. They want to capitalize on the well-known characters and stories. Too bad I would think they could create a “new” Star Wars for a new generation.. but lets hope they can do that anyway with the stuff they choose. I have my fingers crossed for some good future Star Wars movies.
I figure it will be about new characters as opposed to the old ones. I’m sure Disney wants to do movies about characters the create more than what someone else did.
I would expect that you would have 1-2 old characters and the rest new. That way, Disney will have new action figures to sell and Lucas won’t get a cut.
I’d love to see them adapt some of the EU material for the basis of some spinoff movies. There is plenty of stuff available that they could take elements from, like the Thrawn trilogy or Shadows of the Empire that could still easily fit in with the new timeline they are creating with the upcoming films, or from a time long before the setting of the core movie series (like in the Old Republic days).
Disney is infamous for creating their own characters to insert in classic stories – witness Thumper in Bambi, Tigger in Winnie the Pooh, Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid, etc. because then they can market the Disney character in additional stories, books, games, whatever in situations where they don’t have the merchandising rights to the classic characters. That said, since Disney owns Star Wars and all the characters outright, perhaps that rule won’t apply here. I think introducing a new cast of characters – and a new story line – would be the way to go with Star Wars since the original story arc was brought to penultimate conclusion. By the same token, I thought that Paramount missed the boat where Star Trek was concerned – they ought to have introduced new characters and situation, perhaps in a Star Fleet Academy setting and then follow them through their careers in later years. But J. J. Abrams surprised me with his reboot of the franchise, so perhaps he will perform similar magic with Star Wars.
That said, Disney is also infamous for cranking out really crappy sequels to their hits, so the notion that they will be slamming out additional Star Wars movies in addition to the new trilogy sort of gives me pause. The last thing we need is the Star Wars equivalent of Little Mermaid II … oh wait, George Lucas already did that with those awful Ewok Movies That Shall Not Be Named.
Long as it’s good I don’t mind the money grab.