Disney Buys LucasFilm: Star Wars 7 Planned To Release 2015

I can't believe how much negative feedback is on here. All i've heard for years is how people wished Lucas would hand Star Wars off so we could have more movies etc and now people are freaking out! I was there when Marvel got bought by Disney too and i'll admit I was tripping out some myself but they've done an AMAZING job at keeping Marvel in the hands of people who know what their doing while at the same time backing them with however much money they need. After 2015 we're going to have a new SW movie every 2 years people I mean come on!! And just imagine the possibilities of someone like Peter Jackson directing them! Just like when they picked Joss Whedon for Avengers their going to make sure they get talented big names to write, direct, and do these movies right because Star Wars is easily their biggest money maker. Canon may be a concern but it's not like it wasen't already getting craped on before this by the Clone Wars tv show and at least now we'll have a company working 24/7 to get all kinds of movies, shows, and video games off the ground whereas does anyone remember the adult themed Dark Times tv show we were supposed to see in like what 2007? Yeah that happened. 2015 is an early release date but people said that about the post-Disney buy Marvel movie line-up and guess what? They've stayed on schedule. This is a great day to be a SW fan. And when they say Star Wars 7 for the next movie I take it they mean simply it'll be the 7th one not that it'll be a direct sequel to ROTJ but we'll see. Earlier today I didn't know if i'd ever see a new one on the big screen again in my lifetime but now in 2015 we get a new Star Wars movie I can't wait!!!

I can't believe how much negative feedback is on here. All i've heard for years is how people wished Lucas would hand Star Wars off so we could have more movies etc and now people are freaking out

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touché

Yeah, it might be labeled Episode VII, but this story could very well take place a hundred years into the future. Luke and company should very well be dead at this point, and the Skywalkers of this era could just be the grand kids who get caught up in the next galactic war. So many possibilities here. I just hope they surpass the Prequels, even though I like them, too.

TOR would make me piss my pants.

I'm optimistic, but so few details are known yet, so we'll see. I hope too that they continue with Luke as the Jedi Master...it would be great to see Mark as an older Luke.

Well, the novels could (And don't shoot the messenger on this, it's just a theory) become what the Buffy novels are to that series. Widely considered to be non-canon, but they still exist in their own universe.

Again, don't kill me...

I disagree. Jackson knew the heart and soul of the Rings' book series and conveyed it beautifully on film. I'm sure Star Wars would be a good challenge for him, but one that he can manage. Nolan, Del Toro, Cameron, Spielberg, and the list goes on and on all have this same ability, too.

Well I will treasure this original saga. I will follow TCW and the EU, and I will watch these new films. But it won't be the same. I won't be able to treat these new films the same way as the first 6. Simply on principle.

if these new films screw everything up, I will still have the original films to treasure.

This deal is a surprise, but it's why Lucas and the other moguls are where they are, and we are just online talking about it.
People keep mentioning Harrison Ford in regards to the original actors being involved as if he would be the only holdout. Guys, you're also not going to see Carrie Fisher play Leia. This isn't Star Trek. New actors should be expected...so maybe in that way, it is like rebooted Star Trek.
Disney now owns STAR WARS. It's weird to say.
I guess I just got comfortable with the sense of the saga being done (for the second time). I'm not into the EU (realized around 1993 there was too much to follow) and hate when people complain about it conflicting with The Clone Wars show, but the prospect of sequels would go over better if all that stuff hadn't been written. From the first word that it won't involve all the Emperor's clones or Luke/Leia/Han offspring or takes bits and pieces from various books like Thrawn here and Mara Jade there but take place in that same time frame, the "EU established canon brigade" will tear it apart. It seems like they would be use to the idea of this whole unfilmed timeline being malleable.
This is like the EU jumping from an assortment of books and games to the next level of an assortment of theatrical movies.
This is a time when I wish I was just a casual moviegoer fan type and not someone who follows messageboards and knows the difference between a bantha and a bothan.

Okay folks, wikipedia provides a good reference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sequel_trilogy) on the history of information doled out over time regarding the potential subject matter of the sequel trilogy. Considering Lucas stated today that he's drafted treatments, it's not unlikely that there may be some elements worthy of further speculation that can be gleaned from this wikipedia article. Has this already been covered somewhere?

In the old days you had theforce.net, Tbone's Star Warz, jedinet, aicn, and a half-dozen other players that one could rely on for good research articles delving into spoiler speculation, but who's still around these days? Back in the day I knew this stuff, but I went and spawned with my wife and all my free time was effectively neutered.

As a Star Wars fan I will not see it Disney as of let seems to not know when to leave something alone.

I personally wonder what this will mean for LucasArts. I've heard them talk about investing in expanding on the feature films and on TV shows, but I haven't heard mention of the games. Not that LucasArts is starving, but I'd like to see them put out games with the regularity that they did when I was younger.

Could an infusion of Disney money mean we might see a Battlefront 3? Force Unleashed 3? New Star Wars starfighter games like Rogue Squadron and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter? I've always wanted to see a Jedi/Sith fighting game like the mode they had in the Episode 3 game.

On the otherhand, this is a really disturbing blurb: "The future of AAA console games from LucasArts seems to be in doubt. Disney CEO Robert Iger spoke at an investor's call, which Polygon picked up: 'We're likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console. 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.'" - http://www.shacknews.com/article/76439/lucasarts-acquired-by-disney

However, that can look bad, but there's an easily overlooked, important phrase in there. "We'll look opportunistically at console, most likely in licensing rather than publishing..."

That could very well mean that the context of this quote is about what their strategy for developing IN HOUSE will be. They may be looking to continue producing quality console (and PC) games, but prefer to do it by licensing to other development houses, and focus on social/mobile in house.

well lucasarts hasn't made anything worthwhile in a long time, and disney hasn't made any good videogames as far as I know

BoromirsFan,

I like you

I learned long ago, you have to make your own Cannon, and the PT did not fit my cannon. I havent been positivly excited by SW in a long time and this news makes my feel like I did when I was anticipating the PT. I remember checking TFN EVERYDAY. After a while, my fandom became about how much I hated SW.

This gives me hope for the SW future.

Glad to see alot of Old Timers coming back!!

Glad to see New Star Wars

Never thought GL would let this day come to pass.

As far as I can see there are only a few ways they can go with this:

1) Tell the story of the Empire between EP3 and EP4 (Highly unlikely, but you never know).
2) Timeline is post ROTJ...using new characters in same SW universe (With a possible cameo from "The Big Three").
3) Same characters portayed by new actors (Hoping a against this...more blasphemous than anythng GL could ever have done).
4) Same characters portrayed by same actors (Best possible outcome and highest box-office potential - I don't care if they're old).

Well...it took this kind of big news to bring me back here.
Hopefully we'll get a steady stream of news over the next few months, so we have something specific to talk about.

Regardless of what we might think of George's filmmaking over the last decade, the fact is that he has been a remarkable businessman from day 1. Look at what he has accomplished outside of Star Wars... Lucasfilm is a giant company that includes ILM, Skywalker Sound, and LucasArts. He had a hand in the early development of Pixar before Steve Jobs got his hands on it. The merchandising licenses held by a multitude of other companies is tremendous! What has happened here is that George made a business move, and a smart one at that. Rather than let the future of his company lie in shambles after he becomes one with the Force, he has made a proactive decision to let another company take over. The Walt Disney Company is the biggest entertainment company in the world. They have acquired many companies and properties in the last few decades. They also tend to put out quality product that is successful and makes money. If any company were to acquire Lucasfilm, it was always going to be Disney. Since the '80s, Disney has had a relationship with Lucasfilm. You can experience Star Wars and Indiana Jones in many of the Disney parks. They have been in a good position to purchase Lucasfilm for a long time now, and it has been rumored in a few circles that this would eventually happen. Now, it has. I, for one, am very optimistic about this. I am confident that Disney will be a good protector of Star Wars as we know it, but I also feel strongly that they will move to expand the brand and do good, fresh things with it. If Pixar and Marvel are any indications as to what Disney can do when they purchase companies and continue to let them do their thing, the future can only be bright for Star Wars.

Wondrous news. Lucas' career is respectable as a successful movie businessman. ILM has done great effect works for other franchises such as Star Trek. But I'm glad he's letting others carry on. From the news it sounds like they are still going by Lucas' "original" Ep. 7-9 story outline he had supposedly way back in the beginning.

It seems a lot of folks have forgotten Disney isn't new at making Star Wars like sci-fi.

The Black Hole trailer


*spoiler* thru the hole


It was their biggest budgeted movie to date then and when Disney started venturing into "dark" themes, before they had Touchstone pictures.
At least their production design standards back then and now, are excellent having seen the new Tron: Legacy.

I personally enjoyed The Force Unleashed a great deal, and was neither blown away nor disappointed with the sequel. I'd love to see a third. That was a LucasArts developed game, and recent.

Still, it is true that most of the best games are only published by LucasArts, not developed in house, making them licensed games. Battlefront was Pandemic, KOTOR is BioWare, LEGO Star Wars is Traveller's Tales.

So I'm not overly concerned about them not focusing on developing games in house, but I really hope they aggressively pursue good development studios for licensing deals, and pump out some of the games Star Wars fans have been waiting for.

I have to say, on this front I'm somewhat concerned. Using the Marvel history with Disney as an example as I have been, the films and such have been great, the video games, kinda hit and miss. Most of the games have been tie ins to the movies, and nothing more than decent rentals. There are exceptions of course, but I'm a bit concerned.

I don't understand how he can say the characters and the story lend themselves to social and mobile gaming. You can tell a much better story and get the audience much more involved with a PC or Console game, especially as Star Wars is an action franchise. I really hope that what he means isn't the kind of thing they are doing with the new Angry Birds Star Wars cash in. I hope they don't intend to create Star Wars themed mobile games with no real substance.

Don't get me wrong, I play games on my phone all the time, and they are fun. The tech is getting better and better, and the games are getting more impressive all the time. Still, we've been developing consoles and PCs as gaming machines for 40 years now, and we have techniques, concepts, technologies, and systems that just don't translate to mobile yet. Can you imagine playing Assassin's Creed or Halo on your phone?

That statement reeks of the idea that everyone has a phone and mobile games are cheap to make, making them a revenue goldmine. It may be good for the dollar, but it's definitely not good for the art to ignore the devices that allow you to produce film quality (and sometimes better than film quality) experiences. We aren't there yet with mobile.

Still, I'm hopeful that this statement doesn't reflect a desire to move away from AAA Star Wars games. Even if it does, hopefully he's not speaking as someone who is setting the direction for LucasArts. As I said, Disney tends to let it's subsidiaries do it's own thing, so him saying that might not mean LucasFilm and LucasArts feel the same way. Further, it's important to understand the context. He was speaking to investors, of course he wants to make sure he says things that sound good to investors, and social/mobile gaming is a buzzword right now.

We also have the excellent looking (but admittedly scarce on details) 1313 coming down the pipe, so hopefully it's a success and encourages further console/PC development. I just hope the lackluster performance of SWTOR doesn't drive them away from wanting to invest in gaming. I think the more important lesson with SWTOR is to see how much people wanted a Star Wars game to love.

I read about this in The New York Times.

October 30, 2012, 4:10 pm41 Comments
Disney Buying Lucasfilm for $4 Billion
By MICHAEL CIEPLY

5:03 p.m. | Updated LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company, in a move that gives it a commanding position in the realm of fantasy movies, said Tuesday it had agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. from its founder, George Lucas, for $4.05 billion in stock and cash.
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It can be either good or bad, I suppose. But a movie in 2015? Wow. I wonder what they have in mind? They shouldn't worry about continuity. There ain't no steeenking continuity in the GFFA.

First GL got scared of his monster that is the holy trinity. Now it's time to let new blood take this bad boy and run with it, my vote is for Joss Whedon who has clearly demonstrated his imagination can handle the burden.
His credentials are firefly, Buffy the vampire slayer (don't care what none of y'all say that show was badass), dr. Horribles sing along blog and the Avengers. I think as long as the reins go into this capable unappreciated man well be save and thoroughly entertained with an entirely new chapter in the star wars universe.

Its interesting seeing that this news is bringing people back. Already it seems the jedi council forums has gotten more traffic, because for me at least a few hours ago the site was loading slowly.....

I do regret not being part of the community when the prequels were being made, I wish I could have shared that experience of wondering what would come. Before the move I got awfully nostalgic when I saw the now closed boards, back when each film had their own board.

I never posted during the PT era but I did read some stuff from 03 to 05.

Im pretty sure I will stick around for the new films, so I look forward to sharing this experience with you guys. For better or worse. I am going to detach myself a bit. This Star Wars won't be quite the same as the last!

@ Ani is my homeboy

Thankfully we won't have to endure a Joss Whedon Star Wars film. The Avengers 2 comes out in 2015. This film is also projected for 2015. So he can't do star wars

I am curious about who will direct this, hopefully they do it justice.

Thinking about The Avengers ...... I attribute the success of that to Joss Wheadon, not to Disney. Disney's only part in that was to hire Joss. So, a whole lot will depend on who they hire for SW.

I don't understand when someone here posts, "Gee sure wish this happened earlier so we could ALL have gotten what we wanted out of the prequels!" Uhh, I think most of us did. We got George Lucas's story for how the Skywalker saga unfolds. It was exactly what I wanted and what I expected, an addition to the greatest film series of all time, and every bit as good as the original trilogy, except far superior effects and visually more impressive. The reason to be worried about this announcement is that if Lucas didn't come up with the story, it's really not Star Wars in any meaningful sense of the word. I guess I speak with all of the other fans who really don't care about the EU, pave right over it. While it's FUN and a lot of it is good stuff, it's not Lucas's story, which is Star Wars. That's why Clone Wars is so easy to accept and enjoy because at least you know The Master is at the helm, if not making every decision, at least guiding the overall story and making sure that it's "Star Wars." If that is the case at least for the movies of the forseeable future, and they are based on his extensive outlines and notes, and he does at least some consulting on the look and feel of the films, that would be enough for me to be onboard until I have reason not to be. In other words, I will give Disney the benefit of the doubt, as well as the director(s) of future films, provided they deliver on the promise of great storytelling and great filmmaking.

What is ironic and very tough to accept is the very real possibility that I will now "cross over" into exactly the group of fans that annoy the heck out of me and who are the reason I stopped posting much on any SW forums in general and stopped enjoying being "part of the community," which is the people who complain about the "new movies." All six Star Wars films from Lucas are equal to me, tied for the best films ever made. They are special. They are not just other entertainment like "Gee, Bond film in a few weeks, yay I love Bond, hope it's good!" If Skyfall isn't good, I don't really care, it won't impact my life much at all. I'll just think huh, well, too bad. Maybe next time. But if a Star Wars film is very good but not great, that would bother me a lot. If at the end of the year, I didn't even rank Episode 7 as the best film of the year, let alone one of the best movies ever, Star Wars has lost its special place and just become another "great entertainment" franchise rather than basically a way of life, the Holy Trilogy, the Holy Saga, etc. I feel the same about the movies' box office success. I better not ever see a Star Wars movie sitting there at #9 for the year, a "solid hit" but nothing special. Absolutely not. Every Star Wars film should be the highest grossing movie of its year. It was bad enough that AOTC lost that title, but at least it was just one film and at least it still made what is considered a huge haul. Star Wars is held to a higher standard and should be. It should always be The Gold Standard, not just another entertainment franchise, but the pre-iminent entertainment franchise, the ultimate franchise, the bar by which all others are judged and measured.

Now, I know that if Episode VII is entertaining and good but not great like the other six, I'll just become what the prequel detractors are today, and Star Wars will become to me what it already has become to them. I can see how devastating that is to the prequel detractors, but I simply have never shared their view. What I got was the 3 greatest films of all time, to join the Original Trilogy. I waited patiently, waited in line, and got incredible movies that blew my mind and were everything I wanted and expected and more. The prequel haters or even people who liked the prequels but didn't find them great have already lost that feeling of "specialness," I guess. Some people lost it with Return of the Jedi, though I'd argue they aren't really much of fans if they liked 2 out of 6 movies. That's kind of... odd. I'm certainly hoping that I see Episode VII and it blows my mind and I'm left thinking holy cow I can't believe it, this movie is just as good as the other 6! But honestly? What are the odds of that. To me, it's all about the imagination of Lucas, and his creations, so I can't see for me that it would be on par or that anything after this would be on par either. That's definitely kind of a sad realization.

That's the negative. But for the positive, I'm really excited about just the thought of waiting for another Star Wars movie, I mean STAR WARS! How cool is that? More casting announcements, a title announcement, pre-production photos and speculation, production updates, just this whole roller coaster ride again that is always so much fun. Plus, the other part of me says as long as I can just adjust my expectations and realize that Lucas's Star Wars will always be the first 6 (unless, for instance, Lucas is strongly involved in the next three and we learn that he's been hands-on throughout the process, etc., sort of like Empire, where he didn't write or direct but it was still his baby), then I think when it comes down to it, isn't it better that there's good Star Wars to look forward to than NO Star Wars? That's the key, though. If future movies are at least good and entertaining, I can accept them for what they are, look forward to them, and be happy to be a Star Wars fan who is getting more content. If they're embarrassing, though, that takes away the luster from a great franchise. Clone Wars is a fantastic TV series and I really love it, but of course I don't put it up there with the Star Wars films as the greatest entertainment of all time, I just consider it excellent entertainment in the fantasy world of my choice that is also overseen by its creator and a variety of other immensely talented individuals.

Overall, I know I'll be there way before the midnight opening, first in line, making sure I get the best possible seat to the first new Star Wars movie in 10 years, which is a pretty huge event. I'm certainly looking forward to that experience again of seeing STAR WARS on the big screen, and I also as a fan feel competitive with milestones that matter. I'm tired of hearing stupid nonsense like Star Wars is a huge franchise, but it's in the past, we are all supposed to support Hunger Games now or whatever other complete fad can't hold a freakin' candle to the biggest franchise in history. I'm also tired of newer franchises with inflated ticket prices and a completely different foreign marketplace, like Harry Potter, laying claim to the box office crown as highest grossing franchise. I personally don't think there's much value in talking about worldwide box office grosses because the foreign marketplace has simply changed too much from even 10 years ago to make it a meaningful comparison, but at the same time I don't like having to make excuses. Now, we can take it right to Harry Potter in any comparison that franchise wants to make. Adjusted for inflation? Check. Total gross? We'll dominate those fools. There won't be any records or milestones Star Wars cannot take.

One thing I really hope is obvious to Disney, and it dang well should be, is that you don't make the money you want to make unless you make sure that the films you are making are of the highest quality. That means that no short of a visionary director should be attached. If you have to wait for a schedule to clear up, you wait. That means a Joss Whedon or a Steven Spielberg or a James Cameron or someone of that caliber. There is no hiring a low level director who is easily controlled and giving him the reigns of the biggest movie franchise in history. You need to go into Episode VII trying to blow everyone away, which means top notch screenwriters, use Lucas's ideas and take his input on the broader strokes so the franchise remains true to its creator and to its core fans, hire the best possible director, demand the biggest and best special effects from ILM as has always been the case on any Star Wars movie, and market the living heck out of it. It cannot be any less than one of the biggest hits of all time, otherwise your future potential is going to be greatly diminished. They will never be able to please everyone, probably not even die-hard fans like me, but they can definitely try their hardest to make something with care and attention to detail that people will enjoy.