With George Lucas officially retiring, Lucasfilm has been purchased by Disney for $4.05 billion dollars. Meaning that as of today, the entire Star Wars universe of movies and related media now belongs to Disney. And they announced Star Wars: Episode 7 for release in 2015.
Holy shit...
Okay, let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. This basically means (or at least most people are guessing) that this is going to work a lot like Disney and Marvel. Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas' chosen successor, is now head of Lucasfilm in the same way Kevin Feige is head of Marvel. They're the ones who run those 'divisions' and answer to the guys at Disney. And Disney for the most part just lets them do their own thing. Most people are thinking that because that's what happened at Marvel and it was wildly successful.
Yes, we'll probably now get an official very good cleaned-up etc. release of the original Original Trilogy. Not the Special Editions, the unaltered versions as they were originally released in theaters back in the day. This hasn't been officially announced but it's been an open secret that Lucas himself has been the one unwilling to do it. But with him stepping down, no one at Lucasfilm is likely against the idea. Plus, it would sell gangbusters among older fans and you know they aren't going to turn free money down.
So now Darth Vader and co. are going to be presences at Disneyworld. I'm not really amazed by this one. With Star Tours and Disney Star Wars Weekends, the denizens of a galaxy far, far away are by this point well-known entities at the Disney Parks. Still, it's cool that in the near future I'll be able to see Donald Duck, Captain America and Darth Vader together in between rides on Space Mountain.
And the big one, Episode 7. I'm conflicted by the idea of a sequel trilogy honestly. On the one hand, it would be cool to have more Star Wars movies. But on the other, the story of the saga ended with Darth Vader's death and the defeat of the Empire. Plus, the era after the films has been so well covered by the books and comics that either the new movies are just going to follow those or completely throw them out.
But for now I'm cautiously optimistic. Disney's a smart company and they know what a valuable prize they've just picked up. This has some great potential for new and interesting stories set in one of my favorite fictional universes.
It's a good time to be a Star Wars fan, dear readers.
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