With the announcement that Disney would be making more Star Wars films came a lot of rumors, as would be expected in the geek-o-sphere.
One rumor had it there would be Star Wars movies every year, but how on earth this will be accomplished is beyond us. It would pretty much be a miracle if we could get a new Star Wars movie every three to five years, considering all the special effects and post-production work involved.
Well, this rumor is apparently true, or at least this is the plan for the next phase of the Star Wars saga. As Giant Freakin Robot confirms, Disney wants to put out a new Star Wars movie every year beginning in 2015, when the JJ Abrams directed Episode VII is due to be released. The idea? In-between the last three episodes, Disney will release spin off films that have also been rumored, like a Yoda stand-alone story.
Alan Horn, the chairman of Disney, announced the new Star Wars films at CInemaCon, and the Wrap also tells us that the Mouse House will be making eight big event films each year, like the follow ups to Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo. This blockbuster plan will also include a new Pixar film every year, as well as the next glut of Marvel films. (Marvel Studios is under the Disney umbrella.)
So if you’re a Star Wars freak, this is of course great news, but you also have to wonder if a Star Wars film every year could be too much. There’s obvious pros and cons with this, the cons being this could really overstuff the turkey, where the pros could be the spin-off films that could be really interesting, and if JJ Abrams reinvents Star Wars as successfully as he rebuilt Trek, it could be a wonderful rebirth of the biggest sci-fi saga of all time.
There’s also of course going to be plenty of cynics out there who feel this will be little more than another exercise in take the money and run, but that would be very ill advised at this point, especially considering a geek backlash against the next Star Wars film could be fatal. This is why we don’t envy JJ Abrmas in a million years. When Lucas came back to direct the last three films, the expectations were impossible to live up to, so try and imagine what kind of pressure is on JJ’s shoulders considering the fans will be looking to him to bring the saga back from the dead.
There will absolutely be a lot knee-jerk reaction out there from the fans no matter what, but again, we at TG will take a wait and see attitude with all of this. Episode VII should definitely set the tone for what’s to come, and we hope it will successfully reinvent Star Wars for many more generations to come.
