Not only has everyone been excited for episodes VII-IX ever since Disney bought the rights from George Lucas last year, we have also been looking forward to the promised spinoff films to be releaesed during the off years of the main trilogy. Speculation has fallen mainly on the side of these being origin films that show the backstories of Han Solo, Chewie, Yoda and Boba Fett, but it was all just guesswork until today when the Disney CFO seems to have confirmed these rumors.
According to Variety, during a presentation at a financial conference today, Jay Rasulo reiterated that one Star Wars trilogy movie or ‘origin story’ would be released every year, starting in 2015 and going forward. Granted, the CFO is not involved in the creative process, so he could be reacting to some of the same rumors we have heard, but it seems unlikely that one of the head honchos at the House of Mouse wouldn’t have some kind of inside information ppertaining to what is sure to become one of their biggest cash cows.
He also made the point that Disney had learned the error of investing such large amounts of money in untested projects (read, “The Lone Ranger”), so they would not be throwing as much money at these huge summer blockbusters as they had in the past. While this hardly means they won’t be spending a ton of money on the new trilogy proper, it’s easy to read between the lines and assume he was referring to the spinoff films.
Not that this is something to be worried about; many movies have become hugely successful and beloved without the help of $200 million dollar budgets. And while we have yet to see how the new trilogy will turn out, it’s highly unlikely Disney is going to let anything happen that would tarnish the reputation and magic that Star Wars brings to mind.
Whatever happens, I’m excited to see what Disney plans to do with these films, and it will be interesting to see how they handle the origin stories of these beloved characters.