Disney has announced plans for a new Star Wars trilogy and TV series in a company call to discuss annual earnings.
The company’s CEO, Bob Iger, revealed that the writer-director Rian Johnson will tackle the new films, which will feature completely new characters in “a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored”.
Johnson has already directed this December’s next instalment, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. His previous credits include Brick and Looper.
“We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi,” said Kathleen Kennedy, the Lucasfilm president. “He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”
It was also announced that a live-action Star Wars TV series is on the way, to air on Disney’s streaming service by the end of 2019. The most recent series to take place in the universe was 2014’s animated Star Wars: Rebels, which began its fourth season last month.
Iger spoke of plans to develop TV spin-offs for Monsters Inc and High School Musical as well as more shows within the Marvel universe. Disney will pull all of its content from Netflix and other streaming platforms before it is made available exclusively on Disney’s as-yet-untitled service, which launches in 2019.
After the release of The Last Jedi, next year will see the Han Solo origins tale, much of which was reshot by Ron Howard after the original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, left the project. It will be followed by Episode IX, which will see The Force Awakens director, JJ Abrams, return to the fold.
Iger refused to comment on rumors that the company is planning to purchase the film and television divisions of 20th Century Fox but did say that Disney was “always looking to add to the number of film franchises” it currently owns.
The company reported a decline in earnings for Q4, linked to underwhelming box office returns for Cars 3, yet with the global success of Thor: Ragnarok, and with the animated adventure Coco as well as The Last Jedi on the way, Iger remained hopeful.
“We look forward to launching our first direct-to-consumer streaming service in the new year, and we will continue to invest for the future and take the smart risks required to deliver shareholder value,” he said in a statement.
