It continues to be an exciting time for Star Wars fans, with more news coming through following the recent announcement of JJ Abrams taking on directing duties for Episode VII. This most recent news comes directly from Disney CEO Bob Iger and addresses some of the rumours circulating that more films are in development other than Episodes VII, VIII, and IX.The idea of Star Wars stand alone films has been recently speculated, such instalments would not form part of the dynastic story arc making up the episodic films but would sit alongside those films independently. Rumoured story ideas have included a Yoda or Boba Fett centric film, as well as a Samurai style Jedi team up film.
Given the variety of settings that exist within the Star Wars universe including the different time periods, factions, and worlds the number of ideas that could be harnessed for this line of the franchise is endless. What is exciting about the idea is that it solidifies the Star Wars galaxy itself as the core component for the franchise within which all these stories may be told. This is a significant shift away from the previous views maintained by George Lucas that it is an Anakin centric series, with few stories to be told beyond that (at least as far as feature films are concerned).
In any case, CEO Bob Iger’s exact words in an interview with CNBC have been reported as follows;
I can confirm to you today that in fact we are working on a few standalone films. 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.
Unfortunately no real indication on what the standalone films might be focusing on, so while we wait for some hints on that let us know your thoughts on what would make a cool standalone Star Wars film!
