star wars timeline

Disney has its hands full with the Star Wars universe – but in a good way.  They have seen tremendous success with the release of the first of a planned “new trilogy” with 2015’s ‘Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens,’ as well as their gambit to release standalone “anthology” films, a process that started with last year’s ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’

So the question inevitably gets asked: what’s next?  What are the company’s future plans for the franchise?  Well, we know that ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi’ is headed to theaters later this year, and the next anthology film an as-yet-untitled story about the young Han Solo is set to be released in 2018.  Beyond these two and the planned (but currently untitled) ‘Star Wars Episode IX,’ the future of the film portion of the franchise has not been made clear.

Recently, Star Wars News Net posted a translated interview that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy held with the Spanish website E-Cartela.  When asked about the future of the films, Kennedy responded thusly:

“To be honest, we are beginning to talk about [the spinoffs] right now. We have four or five weeks immersed in the film ‘Han Solo’ and we are about to read the script of Colin Trevorrow’s ‘Episode IX,’ so we have a lot of work at the moment. In the next six or eight months, we will have some meetings about the stories that we will develop here. After 40 years of adventures, fans have so much information and so many theories about the way that [we] can take these stories, and theories that emerge are sometimes new ideas for us that we hear, read, and pay attention to everything [that] is said. It is clear that the franchise is owned as much by the fans as it’s owned by [the people at Disney/Lucasfilm].”

So there you have it – for fans, it’s pretty much a “hurry up and wait” type of scenario, but it’s good to hear that the powers-that-be behind the the franchise are working hard to create a “master plan” that will hopefully please as many ‘Star Wars’ fanatics as possible.

‘Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi’ will debut in American theaters on December 10, 2017; the untitled Han Solo anthology film is scheduled to be released on May 25, 2018.

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Tony Schaab wonders who would win in an epic, Gladiator-style fight between the Grumpy Cat and the “This is Fine” Dog – an animal-heavy meme battle for the ages!  A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.

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