In an annual report sent to shareholders, Disney CEO Bob Iger briefly discussed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and he outlined plans for future movies in the franchise.
From the report:
We are well aware that for many Star Wars fans the first 11 months of 2015 will be little more than a countdown to the December 18th release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s really impossible to capture the full magnitude of the global excitement around this movie. As you know, we released a very brief “teaser” trailer at Thanksgiving – which was quickly downloaded more than 110 million times. The more than 40 million tribute videos that fans posted in response in just a matter of days reflect an emotional connection to this franchise that transcends geography and generations.
As one of the few people allowed to visit the set during filming….and one of the fewer who’s seen most of the footage… I can assure the millions of Star Wars fans who have spent the last decade hoping for a new movie this one will be worth the wait. And it’s only the beginning of a new era of exceptional Star Wars storytelling; next year we’ll release our first standalone movie based on these characters, followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII in 2017, and we’ll finish this trilogy with Episode IX in 2019.
Am I understanding that correctly – The first standalone is based on the characters from The Force Awakens? Or Star Wars characters in general? I would assume that the characters from TFA would carry over into the next installment in that trilogy, and the first standalone would focus on “standalone” characters. I could be wrong, though. It’s been known to happen. 😉
Either way, it’s good to hear he’s excited about the footage he’s seen so far! I think that bodes well. Don’t you?
A PDF of the 2014 Annual Report can be found here.
