Star Wars Movie Sequels Will Outlast Us All

In a brand new interview, Disney and Lucasfilm announce they plan to never stop making Star Wars sequels.

In the last decade, the movie universe has had one of its core principles turned upside down. Sequels do well–but sequels do well only up to a point. After a while there are diminishing returns (Rambo IV) there is a massive decline in quality (Godfather III) or the entire enterprise turns into a joke (Rocky XIII.) But since 2009, Disney has found a way around that, expanding franchise single story sequels into entire universes, which can hold multiple stands of sequelized films. The Marvel movies proved it can be done. And with that certainty made, Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Gareth Edwards are ready to take it to the next level. In a wide ranging interview with Wired, the coterie that is bringing us Star Wars VII, VIII, and IX promise that this is just the beginning. They plan to make so many Star Wars sequels and spin offs, and have a plan ranging so far forward with them, that most of us likely won’t live to see the end of the story. And you thought the MCU plotting out to 2022 was ambitious.

Some of the major highlights from the article:

Kasdan on writing Episode VII with J.J. Abrams: “We started walking around, recording into an iPhone and breaking the story,” Kasdan says, using Hollywood jargon for outlining a plot. “We walked for miles, through Santa Monica and Manhattan and eventually Paris and London.” Kasdan says the only must-have item was to bring back Han, Chewie, Luke, and Leia. “On the first day, I said, look: Delight, that’s the word. In every scene, that should be the criterion we’re using. Does it delight?”

J.J. Abrams on the pressure to succeed: “I do feel like there’s a little bit more of a burden on Larry and me to come up with a story that could at least be the beginning of what transpires over three films,” Abrams says

Kiri Hart, on Rogue One: “[W]e’re essentially making a period piece. The benefit of making additional episodes that move forward on the timeline is that we are making new space for ourselves.” (Also included, the story of how Rogue One was pitched and greenlit. Though I’m still bitter they didn’t go for the clearly more superior name “Band of Bothans.”)

As Adam Rogers, the writer, sums up: “They are making more. A lot more. The company intends to put out a new Star Wars movie every year for as long as people will buy tickets. Let me put it another way: If everything works out for Disney, and if you are (like me) old enough to have been conscious for the first Star Wars film, you will probably not live to see the last one. It’s the forever franchise.”

Next: Her Universe, Hot Topic Announce Star Wars Holiday Fashion Collection

I highly recommend the entire article. It’s a deep dive into the the new status quo of the movie making culture that Disney has basically invented in this last decade, and how they plan to go forward with it.