Disney has purchased Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion, and with it the rights to produce new Star Wars films. So far their plans are to release episode 7 in 2015 as the start of a new trilogy, and from there they intend to release a new Star Wars film every few years until we destroy the planet with an excess of pollution.
Fox's breaking of the story here
Now obviously this story is going to spark a lot of hyperbole and rage across the internet among Star Wars fans, but I'm going to try and avoid that here. The original films were a part of my childhood and now as an (adult) I understand the context of the films, and the genre fiction the films use as reference points and I appreciate them all that much more. I am a vocal opponent to the changes Lucas has made so far, including the additional films that I choose to ignore. As tiring as it is to listen to the nerds whine, for me Han shot first, and Darth Vader silently hurls the Emperor down that random pit in one of the most poignant moments in film history.
Star Wars as a universe has always had the potential to be an enormous franchise, and that hasn't always been a bad thing. While I don't at this point trust Disney to do it, I could see the Star Wars franchise returning to its pulpy, sci-fi adventure roots. And that would be great. For now all we can do is hold our breath, and watch this video:
