New Star Wars Trilogy: Episodes VII, VIII, IX Announced!

From Pablo Hidalgo's Notebook: October 30th for the rest of us.

In conjunction with the announcement today that Lucasfilm has been purchased by Disney, it was also announced that under that under the guidance of Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, Disney-Lucasfilm will produce at least three new Star Wars films starting with Episode VII in 2015.

Kennedy will serve as Executive Producer on the new Star Wars films and George Lucas will be a creative consultant for the film.

Lucas also revealed that he had given Kennedy and Disney story treatments for Episodes VII, VIII and IX, but that he would not be writing or directing the films themselves. How true Disney-Lucasfilm stays to Lucas' story outlines will remain to be seen.



Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger on the future of Star Wars films:

"The last Star Wars movie release was 2005's Revenge of the Sith – and we believe there's substantial pent up demand. In 2015, we're planning to release Star Wars Episode 7 – the first feature film under the "Disney-Lucasfilm" brand. That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 – and our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years. We're very happy that George Lucas will be creative consultant on our new Star Wars films and that Kathleen Kennedy, the current Co-Chair of Lucasfilm, will executive produce. George handpicked Kathy earlier this year to lead Lucasfilm into the future. She'll join Disney as President of Lucasfilm, reporting into Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn and integrating and building the Star Wars franchise across our company."

Also worth reading are some StarWars.com blog posts about the future of the film franchise:

1. J.W. Rinzler's "The Long, Winding, and Shapeshifting Trail to Episodes VII, VIII & IX"
2. Steve Sansweet's "Lucasfilm + Disney = More Star Wars and Great Times for Fans"
3. Pablo Hidalgo's "On the Brink of the Future"
4. Lucasfilm's Announcement on Starwars.com

Look for my full thoughts on Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm and the fact we are getting new Star Wars movies just as soon as I can gather the pieces of my brain that are strewn about. 

SOURCES: StarWars.com, Youtube, and The Walt Disney Company