Disney Buys Lucasfilm

[General Havoc]

Wasn't sure where this went, but I spotted it on the BBC this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20146942

Disney is buying Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, from its chairman and founder George Lucas for $4.05bn (£2.5bn).

Mr Lucas said: "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film makers."

In a statement announcing the purchase, Disney said it planned to release new film Star Wars Episode 7 in 2015.

That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 and then one new movie every two or three years, the company said.

The last Star Wars film was 2005's Revenge of the Sith, and Disney said it believed there was "substantial pent up demand".

On the one hand, it's good to have it out of Lucas' hands.

On the other... Episodes 7-9? Oh hell...

[Dark Silver]

no no no

you missed the important part of this Havoc.

That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 and then one new movie every two or three years, the company said.

so..you not only have 7, 8 and 9 to worry about...

but 10, 11 12 13 14 . . .

[B4UTRUST]

Well there's enough EU material to probably make another dozen movies easily already. But aside from that at least on a plus note Disney can't do much worse than Lucas did.

[Batman]

Yeah, but is there enough EU material to make a dozen movies you actually want to see?
I agree Disney has its work cut out if they want to do more damage to the Wars franchise than LFL already did.

[Josh]

The world ends in December, right guys?


RIGHT?

[Cynical Cat]

Lets hope they make Star Wars movies that don't suck as much as some of the ones they've made recently like Thor or The Avengers.

[Josh]

Uh...

Maybe another example other than Thor. I know most of y'all liked it, though.

Whatever they do, I'd love to see them break away from the Luke/Leia/Han thing though. Del Rey was all set to try that but got overridden by the Lucas. No new actors to replace Hamil and Fisher and Ford, just break out and explore the universe. Star Wars is fucking huge, full of nooks and crannies, do something different.

[Soontir948]

Whatever they do, I'd love to see them break away from the Luke/Leia/Han thing though. Del Rey was all set to try that but got overridden by the Lucas. No new actors to replace Hamil and Fisher and Ford, just break out and explore the universe. Star Wars is fucking huge, full of nooks and crannies, do something different.

I stopped reading EU about 7 years ago because it mainly focus on them or their children. Sure the setting changed with the Vong and what not, but it was still the same old crew. I don't even want any of them mentioned except perhaps in passing (Luke Skywalker: Hero of the New Republic) if need be, but otherwise it should be standalone.

[Josh]

I stopped reading after the first book of the Insect whatever trilogy. It was just... just...

Just right back to the worst of the original EU. I mean, Black Fleet Crisis levels of bad.

[Cynical Cat]

The Vong, like most of the EU, is shit. Sure Matt Stover rocks the house, Brian Daley's Han Solo books were good, and there are a few more pearls amongst the garbage, but the EU should be left to rot.

[frigidmagi]

I'm not sure what the hell you could make Episode 7 about. I'm not a great fan of the prequels but the 6 movies are fairly complete story. I suppose you could do a Knights of the Old Republic kinda thing? I dunno.

Also I gotta admit I refused to believe this was real for a couple of hours. I spent a half hour trying to prove to myself Havoc had linked me to a fake BBC site.

[Norseman]

What I would *like* to see would be Disney redoing the original prequels. They couldn't possibly do a worse job than was originally done.

[Dark Silver]

They could always do a "Heir to the Empire" trilogy with Thrawn.

I actually rather liked Zahn's work on those books...

[frigidmagi]

Wouldn't that require the original cast though Alan? That's gonna be hard to pull off. Bluntly the cast of the OT is at least 30 years older and it's open question as to whether or not they would be interested anyways, so unless you're casting them as wise old mentors, or aging folks on a last adventure or doing Star Wars: The Golden Years, odds are you can't use all of them in episode 7. You could set it in the prequel era, but man you're playing with a shitton of butthurt there. I sure as hell wouldn't want to do it.

That leaves setting it in the past or the future. I'm frankly assuming Disney will outright ignore the EU. As is traditional. If you do the future, you could do something like Legacy... Although by the Force I would like to see a Star Wars conflict that wasn't "Sith form an Empire, Jedi protect a Republic. They fight."

That said, Jedi and to a lesser extent Sith are what make the Star Wars universe distinct, so they're gonna be front and center in Episode 7.

[Josh]

Threads that are entirely played out for Star Wars:

Sith empire vs. Jedi outcasts. Jedi government vs. Sith dissidents.

Alien invasion from new superalien threat.

I think there needs to be something more on the big picture side of things, myself. It's like somebody said at SDN prior to RotS, some actual Star Wars would be nice for a change.

[LadyTevar]

What will happen to the proposed Rogue Squadron tv series?

[Batman]

There was a proposed Rogue Squadron TV series? Nobody ever tells me anything.
World's Greatest Detective my
Babs is back to being Batgirl, remember?
Bugger.

[Charon]

I'm not sure if I'm cautiously optimistic or cautiously pessimistic.

So we'll just say I'm cautious.

[Soontir948]

Wow, that Rogue Squadron television series proposal really wasn't published well enough.

[Stofsk]

I'm pretty apathetic to this news. As in, I couldn't care less. Lucas killed off my remaining esteem for his work, first with the special editions of the OT, then the prequels, then the DVD release of the OT which had the original originals with the shitty laserdisc transfer (right next to the SE versions that were pristine in comparison), and finally with the blu-ray release where he tinkered with it YET AGAIN. Who do I go see to turn in my Warsie badge, because this goose is well and truly cooked. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

[Batman]

I'm going to remain a Warsie for the time being, because, then fun part is, we get do decide what to be Warsie about. Being a Warsie doesn't mean you have to love anything and everything that came out of the franchise. While I'm afraid there are people who liked KJA's stuff, the Vong abomination or even Traviss' Wankalorians, that doesn't mean we don't remember the awesome that was the OT. LFL may have decided that the garbage is as canon as the gems, and we may have to abide by that in Vs debates if and when local law says so, but that doesn't mean the gems don't exist, or that we should forego loving the OT just because of what came after it being by and large not something you'd write home about.