By: Russ Burlingame on February 5, 2013
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s rumors that a Yoda spinoff film is in the works, Disney CEO Robert Iger confirmed what has been rumored since his first investor conference call: that the studio is developing new Star Wars films set outside of the main line of their upcoming Episode VII/VII/IX trilogy.
The studio exec also confirmed that both Lawrence Kasdan (who worked on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) and Simon Kinberg are working to develop the spinoffs, as well as serving as advisers to J.J. Abrams on Star Wars Episode VII.
“There’s been speculation about some standalone films that have been in development and I can confirm to you today that in fact we are working on a few standalone films,” Iger told CNBC. “Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are both working on standalone derived from some great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga. So we still plan to make Episodes VII, VIII and IX roughly over a six year period of time starting in 2015 but there are going to be a few other films released during that period of time, too.”
Last months, rumors began to circulate that Man of Steel director Zack Snyder was in talks with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy to direct a Star Wars film set outside of the main trilogy that would be a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Representatives for the director issued a denial that he had signed on for any such deal, but secondary sources soon cropped up to claim that whether a deal was signed or not, he had almost certainly pitched the film to Kennedy.
