In one of the most enormous moves in movie and pop-culture history, The Walt Disney Company has announced that it has acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05-billion. But wait, there’s more! The company has also announced that Star Wars Episode 7 is slated for 2015 and will kick off a new Star Wars trilogy. Here’s more from Disney CEO Robert Iger:
In 2015, we’re planning to release Star Wars Episode 7 — the first feature film under the “Disney-Lucasfilm” brand. That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 — and our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years. We’re very happy that George Lucas will be creative consultant on our new Star Wars films and that Kathleen Kennedy, the current Co-Chair of Lucasfilm, will executive produce. George handpicked Kathy earlier this year to lead Lucasfilm into the future. She’ll join Disney as President of Lucasfilm, reporting into Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn and integrating and building the Star Wars franchise across our company.
Wow. Just wow. Between Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar, Disney now owns some of the most beloved pop-culture franchises in the world.
That said, I’m also scared of this acquisition. Iger saying that Disney plans to release a Star Wars film every two to three years sounds like a recipe for over-saturation. Of course it’s impossible to say how successful this acquisition will be. For now, I’d love to hear your initial reaction to Disney buying Lucasfilm, as well as your thoughts on a new Star Wars trilogy. Share your feelings — don’t let go of them like a Jedi — in the comments section (please!).
4.05 million?
How does Lucasfilm cost less than a utility infielder?
My fault! I corrected it to $4.05-billion.
Hahaha
In the immortal words that Darth Vader never should have said:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This could turn out nice. There are so many novels out there and about 99% tell a better story than what Lucas could write. Fanboys are always clamoring for source material put into a movie, so this could be their chance. This honestly doesn’t sound as bad to me as turning the Hobbit into 3 movies.
Also Disney could release some Star Wars movies as animated movies that go straight to Bluray or something.
That said…I’m gonna go to Disney world in about 5 years now so I can see all the new Star Wars swag. Maybe they will reproduce Star Destroyer Lego sets again???!!!!
Agreed on the novels. Grand Admiral Thrawn was bad-ass.
Im still shocked by this announcement. Im hoping 7,8,and 9 bring us the events from after with the Yuuzhan Vong.
I’m still shocked by this news. I’ve read it all over the place, but I don’t think I’ve been able to really comprehend the ramifications of this acquisition, and what will actually happen to the future of Star Wars.
Also, does this mean we can get a Marvel vs. Sith/Jedi video game? For some reason that sounds like fun.
Kevin Smith (the filmmaker) had an interesting take on this on his Facebook feed. I’d paste a link, but I’m dumb and I don’t know how to do that from FB, so here’s his post. You can go read the comments, which are, predictably, hilarious.
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WE ARE DISNEY!
ALL YOUR CHILDHOOD ARE BELONG TO US!
Lots of folks asking what I think about the recent announcement that Disney is now the proud owned of the STAR WARS universe.
I’m all for it.
Can’t wait to see all the new movies they’re gonna make. The 7 year old Kev who saw STAR WARS during its initial release in 1977 is finally gonna get all 9 STAR WARS movies he was promised back then. I’ll be first in line to pay for whatever they do.
The Disney purchase of Lucasfilm is the fulfillment of a wish the Mouse made upon a star a few years back: the wish for little boys.
Sounds dirty but it’s just business: the Disney Princess market gave the Mouse all the little girls they could sell an Ariel costume to but Disney couldn’t interest boys in their wonderful world beyond the single digit years. Few boys are clamoring to play with a Peter Pan action figure and hooking the audience while their young is an important component of long term brand loyalty. So rather than develop their own boys brand in-house, they started buying “boy” stuff. It started with Marvel and it now continues with the world of STAR WARS.
And so long as Disney’s allowed to continue the franchise and make new flicks, they’ll make that $4 billion back in less than a decade. They’ve got eons worth on non-movie material to work from, too: all the books, the games, the comics, etc.
But the most important development to come out of the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm?
We might finally get an official Special Edition BluRay release of the STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL!!!
Thanks for that Tony! Sorry about your baseball team going impotent in the World Series. I’m sure you guys will be back and be even scarier next year.
I’m perfectly happy with the Giants and Tigers alternating World Series wins for the next few years. Hope your Yanks get their act together and make it interesting. ;)
The Yankees’ immediate future looks bad. Too many old players and inflated contracts. On the bright side, the Red Sox look even worse!
…and the Marlins look even worse than the Red Sox.
-M
At first I thought “Oh #$*@!” but after I picked up my jaw from the floor, I realized that this will at least fix some problems that I have with George Lucas… like him ruining his movies by re-releasing them, then re-mastering them, then releasing the re-released, re-mastered version. By the time he’s done butt raping his own masterpiece, we are left with Greedo shooting first, Han Solo awkwardly stepping over Jaba’s “tail” and Darth Vader comically stating: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
So looking on the bright side; I don’t think it can be any worse than it is now. Can Disney milk this and screw it up? Yes. But I think there is more room for improvement than there is space to fall.
-M
Meant to ask earlier, does this deal also include ILM and Skywalker sound?
It does indeed. A lot of people think Disney will save a bundle on special effects through its acquisition of ILM.