Disney plans to expand the ‘Star Wars’ universe even further with stand-alone films focusing on characters outside the main saga.
Those spin-off films would be in addition to the next three installments the company is making after acquiring Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise in a $4 billion deal last October, the Hollywood Reporter said.
There are no details yet about what direction the offshoots will take — a Yoda storyline seems to be a popular choice online.
But Disney has brought on Lawrence Kasdan, who helped write ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’, and Simon Kinberg, producer of ‘X-Men: First Class’, for the planned spin-offs.
Disney CEO Bob Iger described the ‘Star Wars’ spin-offs as “films derived from great ‘Star Wars’ characters that are not part of the over-all saga,” and hinted the films could be released alongside the new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy.
“We still plan to make ‘Star Wars’ VII, VIII and IX roughly over a six-year period of time starting in 2015,” said Iger.
“But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time, too.”
JJ Abrams has already signed on as director for ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’, set for release in 2015. ‘Toy Story 3’ writer Michael Ardnt is set to write the screenplay.