Disney has today agreed to acquire Lucasfilm, a move that will see the company also own the lucrative Star Wars license, much the shock of many.
In terms of movies, that means that a new Star Wars movie is coming, with Episode 7 currently penned for a 2015 release and Kathleen Kennedy producing. New films “every 2 or 3 years” after that are planned – Episodes 8 and 9 being the obvious ones.
The deal is worth over $4 billion.
How this will affect the Star Wars video games lineage is yet to be fully realised, but the adult-themed 1313 spin off game is apparently still going ahead. “For the time being all projects are business as usual,” said a spokesperson for Lucasarts.
“We are excited about all the possibilities that Disney brings.”
However, Disney’s CEO Robert Iger has a slightly different goal. “We’re likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console,” he said.
“We’ll look opportunistically at console, most likely in licensing rather than publishing, but we think that given the nature of these characters and how well known they are, and the storytelling, that they lend themselves quite nicely, as they’ve already demonstrated to the other platforms.
Disney will also, as part of the deal, acquire ILM and the rights to the Indiana Jones license.
Origami Killer
I must be one of the few people who has enjoyed every star wars film and more star wars films can only be a good thing for me :) Wonder what will happen with the Indy franchise though
The Lone Steven
I think they plan to do a fourth film in a few years time.
KeRaSh
I can’t wait for the internet to implode when they announce Shia LaBoef as the main actor. :P
I personally don’t have anything against him but it seems like I’m one of the few who shares that opinion.
Origami Killer
5th film? ;)
I have nothing against him as well, enjoy the films he’s in.
The Lone Steven
Nope, there has only been 3 Indy films. And will always be 3 films untill they do a 4th one.
ron_mcphatty
I quite liked Indie And The Holey Playmobile Rugby Ball.
hazelam
i don’t think LaBoef was the worst thing in the movie, he certainly did a lot less gurning than he did in the Transformers movies.
maybe it takes a better director than Michael Bay keep his gurning tendencies in check.
jbni
With Disney practically owning all the studios, they’ll cross brand:
The aliens from Indiana IV will return with Buzz Lightyear following them and Indy will have to travel with him across the sea, with a drunken sounding pirate captaining their boat. They’ll make it to a mystical treasure island, only to be spirited away to a ghost-like realm and battle against a black masked baddie with a laser sword
hazelam
i know that was a joke, but i would totally watch that. ^_^
hazelam
i read somewhere, AICN i think, that as Disney now own Marvel and the Indy license, we could see Indy meet Howard Stark.
interesting concept, i could see a crossover in the comics, not in movies.
Dom El
Clearly as so many of us grew up adoring the original trilogy we have a firmly implanted sense of ownership – an ownership that was diminished by what many feel to be lacklustre movies in the prequels.
I personally found them entertaining enough, though not as good as the originals, but how much of that can be put down to them being around in our formative years as opposed to now with our cynical adult selves?
Having read a great deal of the fiction that comes after Return Of The Jedi, I hope that they choose to make films using some of that timeline. If anything, I found the material that comes after the original trilogy to be far more compelling.
I would also hazard a guess that Disney will actually be more reverent for the source material than George Lucas himself, who arguably had a good idea in the 1970’s and has struggled to personally make good on that potential ever since.