So it’s goodbye Rumour Alert and hello to Confirmation Klaxon. You might recall that, back in November, word began to surface that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg were rumoured to be on to write the second and third new Star Wars films (with Michael Arndt already working on the first for JJ Abrams to direct). Well, it appears that they won’t be doing that, but they will be working on stand-alone films set within the **Star Wars **universe.
"We are in fact working on a few stand-alone films," Disney boss Bob Iger told CNBC's Julia Boorstin (via Variety). "Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are both working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga. So we plan to make Star Wars VII, VIII and IX over roughly a six-year period of time starting in 2015. But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time too."
Kasdan won’t just be spearheading his own project: he’s also apparently consulting with Abrams on Episode VII. Which, given his sterling work writing The Empire Strikes Back and, perhaps to a lesser degree, Return Of The Jedi,** **must surely be A Good Thing.
Yesterday, Ain’t It Cool News heard that one of the films might focus on diminutive Jedi master Yoda, who certainly seems a likely candidate given his fan following. The question is how ready are we for a film with a main character whose grammatical rules are that different? Also, does he count as a character who is "not part of the overall saga"?
Naturally, the Mouse House is keeping other details quiet, since it’s early days in development. But it certainly sounds like it wants to get as much value as it can out of that $4 billion Lucasfilm purchase. These are interesting times to be a **Star Wars **fan...
[[Poll878]]