So, aparently George Lucas has decided that he really means it, and wants to retire. Lucasfilm is being bought by Disney for the cool price of four billion dollars.

Disney gets Industrial Light and Magic, as well as rights to all Lucasfilm movies and projects... of course, the big point being, they now fully control Star Wars.

Apparently, there will be another trilogy coming, with a movie as early as 2015. Looks like this will focus oon other characters. There may be a new series coming.

What do you think about this?

Personally, I'm for it. I think that there are an enormous amount of stories to be told in this universe. I'm cautiously optimistic that Disney will do this right... I don't see how they can hack it up worse that George did with the prequels.

...I think I can get behind it. Would really like to see them do something focusing on Solo, myself. Read a series of books a few years ago that followed Han through his pre-New Hope days and really enjoyed the tale.

As long as disney doesn't make the new star wars for kids, I think that Disney will do fine. As long as the don't bring in another Jar-jar. I'm very interested in what time they will put the movie istelf in because much of the later time was written.

I have mixed feelings about this story. The one I read, link below, seemed to hint it would be about Luke, Leia and Han, See excerpt below:

Disney buys LucasFilms
Quote: The seventh movie, with a working title of "Episode 7," is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The new trilogy will carry the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond "Return of the Jedi," the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new "Star Wars" movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as the creative consultant for the new movies.
I could be down with some movies as long as it isn’t Star Wars Episode 7: Further Adventures of Jar Jar Binks.

...and am now less than enthused, to be honest.

We've now had six movies around this one family. There is literally an entire alternate universe worth of material, here... give us some different characters!

A friend of mine and I were discussing it a bit. There are many ways they could take it. So far it seeme like they intend to go along the expanded universe route with a sequel trilogy.

Unfortunately, this can be good or bad. There is a good foundation of material to use, but at the same time, the capacity to really mess things over is there, particularly with some of the things they have going.

For instance, I am not particularly enthused by the now real possibility of kingdom hearts crossing over with star wars...

If they use the books about what happens in the SW universe, then it could be good.

I am in favour of anyone making Star Wars other than Lucas who is a complete sellout. Much like when Abrams took Star Trek, I think that this could be a good thing.

But disney doesn't have a good rep with sci-fi.

... Jedi Knight?

Why not? They made Anakin a Mouseketeer in the prequel trilogy, anyway.

I don't see this happening. There's too much of a fanbase to risk that kind of thing.

The only crossovers you'll see are the Star Wars weekend stuff they already do at Disney World - yes, they really do have Mickey dressed up as a jedi. This has been going on for years, though. None of that will make it to film, or even to a serious discussion.

...I was a little worried when Disney bought up Marvel, too, but, after having seen the Avengers, I have to admit I was happily surprised.

Got nothing at all against Disney, mind you - in fact, when I was a kid I really wanted to work for Disney - but the Marvel thing made me go "wha-huh?" and the Lucasfilm thing does, as well... (although, in my mind, the Lucasfilm purchase makes more sense than did the Marvel buy)... *shrugs* Either way, I hope Disney does right by the franchise and, regardless of what they put out there as far as Episode 7, it's gotta be better than Episodes 2 and 3, doesn't it?

George set the bar so low, can they really do worse than the prequels?

Honestly, I'm not at all surprised over this move. Disney has had some major Star Wars interests for a long time, now; they've had theme park attractions with Star Wars themes for more than a decade.

I know that there is the threat of the unknown, but really... what studio could have bought it and made us feel better about the idea?

I've seen a lot of the obligatory "sell out" comments, cutesy photoshop stuff with mouse ears on Vader, but I have to wonder... would fans have been happier had Lucas let Star Wars die with him? The guy is past retirement age as is. They plan to use him as a creative consultant (though again, he has proven that his input is of dubious value).

Was there really a better real world solution?

...any other company would have been a wasted effort, I think.

Disney definitely has the 'imagination' quotient in spades where picking up Star Wars and making it work is concerned.

Thinking about it further, Disney actually is at least one of the best choices. The main thing that (in my opinion) went wrong with the prequels is that they put too much effort into explaining things. They essentially had to squish an entire persons life story into three movies while under the mo of explaining just about anything and everything. while making that one person 'special' and going too far with all of the above.

Under further thought, I don't think Disney will fall into the same problem. They're pretty good at not explaining things. Ie tron. We are given the grid and matter to data conversion, and no one explains it and everything is good.

The other thing I think about in the back of my mind though is that all stories end at one point or another. Expanding things starts targetting a smaller and smaller audience because like all things there are those who like the expanded universe and those that don't. Pushing things into Canon status can segment a series' following who preferred one take over the other, etc.

So would it have been better to leave it? Not sure, but I don't think it would have been a bad decision either. Sometimes you just have to let the story go, and leave the rest of the fun to the audience to interpret what ifs and conjectures.

...at some of the casting choices that are floating around out there.

Ryan Gosling as Han Solo?

Please, Gods, NOOOOOOOOO!!! The man has all the personality and acting chops of a plank!

Rooney Mara as Princess Leia and Emilie Hirsch as Luke Skywalker? Welll... maybe... but NO GOSLING.