Entertainment

Three new as-yet-untitled Star Wars films will hit the big screen every other year just before Christmas starting in 2022, the mega-studio announced. That means that there could be a three-year wait between the December release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker the final film in the original series begun in 1977, and the next big-screen Star Wars flick.

Several Star Wars projects are in the works, including a trilogy by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones and a separate trilogy by Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. A spokeswoman for Disney, contacted by AFP, did not offer additional details about the upcoming scheduled films, which will expand upon the cinematic universe created by George Lucas.

Disney paid US$4 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012. In September last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger admitted after the lacklustre performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, a one-off film in the franchise, that the Star Wars release schedule was too frenetic.

After six films in 38 years, from 1977 to 2005, the rhythm had picked up considerably. A total of four films came in rapid succession, from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 to Solo: A Star Wars Story in May 2018.

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made – I take the blame – was a little too much, too fast,” Iger told The Hollywood Reporter last year.

Meanwhile, the studio pushed back its plans for the next films in director James Cameron’s uber-successful Avatar franchise – one of the biggest prizes for Disney in the Fox merger. Avatar 2 will come a year later than expected in December 2021, followed by Avatar 3 in 2023, Avatar 4 in 2025, and Avatar 5 in 2027.

Avatar remains the top-grossing film of all time, with US$2.79 billion in worldwide box office sales, but superhero extravaganza Avengers: Endgame is hot on its heels at US$2.24 billion and rapidly climbing.

Source: AFP Relax News

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