At an investors conference yesterday in Beverly Hills, Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo was on hand to talk about how the company wants to expand the STAR WARS brand and revealed that the upcoming standalone films will be origin stories. According to Variety, Rasulo said that a STAR WARS trilogy film or an origins story film will be released each year starting with STAR WARS: EPISODE VII in 2015, just like the timeline we showed you back in June.
Rasulo also went on to talk about how profitable STAR WARS could be for Disney, and how they can squeeze even more cash out of it with theme parks, licensing deals and toys. He calls STAR WARS an "evergreen property" and "the market is extremely hot for everything STAR WARS." Some are concerned that since Disney owns STAR WARS the films could end up being too kid friendly, but Rasulo says "this is not a new franchise for kids." That doesn't mean we'll be getting an R-rated STAR WARS, but it sounds like Disney isn't aiming at just children with their new STAR WARS films.
Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool has heard that one of those standalone origin films might be for Han Solo, and Disney has been looking for an actor for the role the past few months while they've been casting for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. No word on which actors may have already read for the role, and we probably won't know for some time since there's so much secrecy with the STAR WARS films.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII should be in theaters sometime in 2015 and (if true) the Han Solo origins movie could be the planned 2016 standalone film.
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