Star Wars episode seven under way as Disney purchases Lucasfilm

If you haven’t been following the news about Hurricane Sandy this week, then you’ve probably been following the second biggest story; Disney’s acquisition of George Lucas’ Lucasfilm for $4 billion.

According to Lucas, who discussed the purchase in a YouTube video this week, writers are already getting started on the seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise, which is slated for 2015, with two more films planned to follow.  Lucas explained to fans that he had been considering retiring for some time now and that it seemed like a good time to sell the Lucas dynasty. “Obviously I’ve been talking about retiring for several years now. I wanted to get into sort of another stage of life where I’m not in film business anymore, where I don’t have to run a corporation,” he said. “It occurred to me one day that the perfect person to run the company was Kathy [co-chair for Lucasfilm]. It’s just such a perfect fit, and I felt that I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity that would protect it. Disney is a huge corporation; they have all kinds of capabilities and facilities. There’s a lot of strength to be gained by this.”

While Lucas will not be involved in any of the upcoming movies, as writer or director, his vision for the series will remain intact, he already has treatments prepared for movies 7, 8 and 9. This deal will not only launch a new Star Wars trilogy in film but will also set into motion a new TV show, games and attractions at Disney theme parks. Over the years Lucas has created some 17,000 characters for his Star Wars universe that inhabit thousands of planets with a history spanning 20,000 years. It is a huge responsibility for his successors to honor the vision that he has created.