‘Star Wars Episode VII’: How New Screenwriters Will Expand The Universe

Here’s what we know about Star Wars: Episode VII right now: Michael Arndt will write Episode VII. Original trilogy scribe Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will work the follow-ups. Matthew Vaughn will direct the first of a new trilogy. All good news, but many questions are still unanswered. Namely, what will the new Star Wars universe look like?

The post-George Lucas Star Wars films are slowly taking shape. Though we haven’t gotten a solid idea of what the new trilogy will look like yet, the reported hiring of original trilogy writer Lawrence Kasdan as writer and producer for the second two films in the new trilogy is encouraging.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s sources confirmed his involvement (even if Disney and Lucasfilm won’t yet) and say that Disney is going to handle Star Wars the same way Marvel handled The Avengers: Tons of solo pictures each year with an occasional team epic.

Kasdan and Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, X-Men: First Class) will reportedly serve as writers and producers on separate projects, and not necessarily Episode VIII and Episode IX. The scripts they’re working on could end up being part of the main series, which will release “every two to three years” according to Disney CEO Robert Iger, or they could be spin-off projects.

Though this is pure speculation, if the new Star Wars trilogy focuses on the post-ROTJ Skywalker clan, multiple spin-offs might mean we get, say, a Boba Fett movie, a Han Solo prequel (When Hanny Met Chewie), a Dark Forces-style film with Kyle Katarn, a mercenary interquel with Mara Jade, etc. Kasdan and Kinberg might supervise all of these projects, and act as “continuity sheriffs” the way Joss Whedon does for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But like we said: Pure speculation.

What do you expect from Disney’s new Star Wars films?