Kasdan & Kinberg Expanding STAR WARS Movie Universe?

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We already knew that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are working with Disney/Lucasfilm on new Star Wars films, gaining both writing and producing credits. But while initial reports said the pair would be working, in some way, on Episodes 8 and 9 of the central Skywalker story, the newest report from THR says they may instead be expanding the universe.

While Disney CEO Robert Iger originally said during the announcement conference call that he'd like to produce a new Star Wars movie every 2 to 3 years, a reported communicae from Kathleen Kennedy to her Lucasfilm employees talked of escalating that timetable to 2-3 films each year, similar to how Disney currently handles the Marvel Studios films. Of course that means expanding outside the Skywalker clan and seeing other corners of the galaxy far, far away.

The Star Wars "Expanded Universe" is, in a word, enormous. With over 200 novels and three decades of comics, plus video games and other side projects, there is a wealth of story and characters to draw from to expand the cinematic universe, too. Now, it seems relatively unlikely they'll jump around the years (the EU goes from 36,000 years before the time of the first film to about 130 years after it) like the books do, but with novels that focus on everyone from pilots to bounty hunters to that famous growling wookiee, films that do the same could be a good fit.

The new report didn't rule out that Kasdan, writer of Empire Strikes Back and one of the writers on Return of the Jedi and Kinberg, whose other big sci-fi franchise X-Men: Days of Future Past has been hitting news lately, too, could still be writing the Skywalkers' saga, but it seems increasingly likely that Star Wars will go through a Marvel-like movie makeover under the house of mouse.

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• Disney Plus Lucasfilm Equals STAR WARS Episode 7 in 2015

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