you mean like Episode 1?

It is probably a good deal for Disney and the property. Disney has a bunch of platforms and markets to leverage it -- a bunch of cable channels, retail merchandise, theme parks, etc. It's a big ass media company, they have certain benefits.

Films are going to part of it ldo, but Disney recently launched Disney XD which is a pretty direct competitor to Cartoon Network for the eyeballs of the 9-25 year old guy. I'm sure they're going to want Star Wars properties to anchor the lineup.

re: price, who knows, I'm sure the models to estimate payback on $4b are pretty complicated.

it does seem like this franchise is a goldmine waiting to be mined, so it makes sense someone would take out their pickaxe. ROTS grossed something like $900m worldwide - seems like if they do turn this into a long standing series they will easily make their money back, especially considering cross marketing.

i read a couple of the thrawn books years ago and they might as well have been fanfiction. the author obv had a raging hardon for the thrawn character and he was written to be absurdly perfect.

some thoughts re: content

- I really doubt these will be pre-prequels; doesn't seem like anything too interesting was going in immediately preceding TPM wrt the light side / dark side battles, and I think you need some of that Jedi/dark jedi content (though mb not)

- if they are prequels, they might go way back to a time when Sith/Jedi were warring

- however, that means abandoning all current characters and story lines completely, which is IP I doubt they want to surrender

- however however, if they pick up anytime soon after ROTJ, they will either need to recast all the main characters from the original trilogy (which I doubt they want to do) or pick up way way after so Luke is an old guy now and Mark Hamill can stay play him, etc. of course Mark Hamill is currently a D movie/voice actor and seems doubtful Harrison Ford could be an old Han so...that doesn't make a ton of sense either

really the idea of Hamill/Fisher reprising their roles in anything more than a cameo seems both risky and ludicrous so I think that idea out the window.

and since they are planning a trilogy, I'm not sure they could get Ewan McGregor to sign back on for multiple movies (assuming they wanted to fill the blanks in some of the era they have already explored in the movies)

and I agree with the Thrawn books being not much above fan fiction and pretty comical - I doubt they want to shoehorn themselves into those stories, especially if they are really playing the long game here (10+ movies)

so...I have no idea lol. my gut says they pickup after ROTJ but with largely new characters - perhaps introducing Han/Leia's kids or something and have the legacy characters make some small cameos just to tie the trilogies together. this will give them a much bigger canvas to work with and not restrict themselves into existing mythologies.

Why wouldn't the next three movies just follow Luke?

Make him a little bit older so Hamill isn't needed, and move on?

the story arc of Luke/Anakin/The Emperor really hit an ending point after ROTJ - it might seem a bit forced to create "The Continuing Adventures of Luke Skywalker" or something like that.

I think you probably need largely new villains and heroes

another thought is they would leverage the scripts Lucas has been writing for his TV project, which never got off the ground but might now:

lucas:

reading between the lines of what Lucas is saying about the 3 treatments he has written - it certainly doesn't seem like they are based on books/comics. seems like it's stuff he came up with

You mean one of the most financially successful and critically acclaimed animated features of the last decade?

Yeah they did "fairly poorly" with that.

I guess I don't understand why.

People ITT seem to be telling me that there is no real sequal to ROTJ. So they can do whatever the frack they want going forward. What is going to be easiest to sell to a new crowd of movie goers? Following some kid of Han Solo or following Luke on some more wacky adventures?

Of course, it seems risky because you might cause SOME of the hardcore fans to not like it, but they're going to see the movie anyway. If you make a QUALITY movie, people won't care that there isn't some completely continuous story arc with one basic villain(see almost every comic book movie ever).

I just mean skip the thrawn timeline. There is no point bringing the thrawn story to the big screen, the series definitely needs a reboot. Place it well after the thrawn series in a time where the rebellion has re-established the republic. I really hope they don't dive into some generic story from the comics/books but mark Hamil cameo would be pretty sick, like Spock in the new Star Trek films.

This. They really need to bring something new and awesome to the nerds and not just pander to them. Probably wishful thinking but at least things can't get worse than episode one. Best case scenario is something in quality between the prequels and original with the small chance of having something on the levels of the originals or avengers. I am optimistic and interested to see what they will do.

After contemplation I'm a fan of this move. Too many rubbish movies out there atm, rehashing an old storyline is sure to provide me with some amusement. Disney has done a decent job with Marvel so optimistic on that front.

I read an interview years ago in Time I think where potential storylines were laid out for movies 7, 8 and 9. Went something like this, Disney will be sure to change it from Lucas' ideas if they have any sense tho

-Hunting down the remnants of the Empire and finding new potential Jedi.
-A new school of Jedi.
-Rebuilding the Republic.

Mila Kunis as Leia would make me happy.

This. The Skywalker saga has gone on long enough. I'm a fan and all, I just feel like the story for those characters has been told.

There's plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for new and interesting stories while keeping the classic style and format. Things like lightsabers, the classical-style music score, the rolling text intro...

Right now it's a very tired franchise and I'd like to see what new writers, designers & actors can bring, especially with a new director. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't - but it's been a very long time since I've seen a SW film where there was some suspense.

The prequels had none. You were just waiting for Obi-Wan and Vader to fight a battle where you already knew the result. And when you finally get it, you get Yoda and Palpatine fighting and you know they're going to survive as well. You knew what was going to happen to the rest of the jedi, R2 & 3PO, Padme more or less too.

Contrast that to the old ones where you had to sweat everything. They killed Obi-Wan, no problem. They took the main hero and cut his hand off. Took another hero and froze him in rock. A second mentor appears but he dies too. In RoTJ, when the final setup comes, you really couldn't take anything for granted. The end could have gone a lot of different ways with Luke/Vader/Emperor. All you knew for sure was that the Emperor wasn't switching sides.

I want either Christopher Nolan or Tyler Perry to direct the new movies.

I think the best thing they could do would be to make new movies that are set at some point prior to ROTJ and focus primarily on new characters. Setting movies after ROTJ just has too many issues related to casting and introducing new villains that were never even hinted at during any of the existing films. Timothy Zahn did a great job with the Thrawn series, but his strength as an author is making it very easy to follow along with an incredibly intriciate story whose pieces all fit together perfectly. Converting that into film format would be very risky. A lot of material would have to be removed, and you'd be left with only the bare outline and not all of the stuff that made the books great.

Would any SW fans want to see side arcs like the story of Han(stuff with Jabba/bounty hunters/Lando) before hooking up with Luke and Leia or Leia after being separated from Luke at birth(not sure this would be interesting enough)?

I think a movie about Han's story would be cool and packed full of action.

I recently watch the latest 3 eps and ep1>>>> ep2=ep3. When i 1st watched em all I though ep1 sucked, but it has grown on me over time.

I think my disdain for ep 2 and 3 is the awful acting buy the kid playing anakin. not that acting was ever strong in starwars.

All in all, even though they ruined the film series by adding the latest 3 eps, its forgivable. The reason being is, star wars isn't just ep 4-6. There is a lot more to it. If they keep making movies, as a star wars fan I will be content. As a film lover I will prolly not be satisfied however. So its love/hate for me.

man, so many people would completely flip if the actual Luke Skywalker appeared in a movie again.

but again, I think the optimal treatment for that would be as a cameo; although I agree with ZBTHorton that as long as the story is good, the timeline could be anything, I think Disney will probably want to think really big and introduce some more main characters - won't want Luke to be center stage.

it's been 30 years since they filmed ROTJ; Ep. 7 taking place 30 years after might actually make some sense. that's time enough for new characters to be old enough, to set a different stage in the galaxy, and to have Hamill and Fisher reprise their old roles and not look ridiculous.

well, they don't really have a choice in this matter. Anakin at the end of ROTJ is good, the Emperor is dead. only if they fill in the blanks between existing movies could they keep those characters but I highly doubt they do that.

There is a book about that actually

I definitely think SW fans would like it. But I expect the first new movie to have a little more general appeal than that. As they do these 3 new movies they can plant the seed for lots of side character off shoots.

Just don't cast Rob Pattison or Taylor Lauter as Han Solo or Luke please, specially not Kristen Stewert as Liea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Han_Solo_Adventures

meh with casting. they couldn't have done better than Natalie Portman but the writing turned her into blah character. writing & directing & story > casting

that said would love to see a Ewan McGregor return