New ‘Star Wars’ Films Will Be Origin Stories, But Whose?

The latest rumor about the new crop of Star Wars films coming out over the next several years is that each of them will be “origin” stories.

Variety picked up the interesting report at a Walt Disney Co. financial presentation, along with other details that seem to suggest to me that you’ll very likely see Star Wars done to death by Disney within your lifetime.

During the otherwise dry money presentation, the new Star Wars films were curiously referred to as “origin story” films, which would be more interesting if it weren’t so vague and open to interpretation. Are the new films going to be prequels of the prequels? Interquels that serve as pilots for a branching franchise? Will we see R2-D2’s origins? Will Boba Fett pilot his own trilogy?

You can see how speculation quickly goes off the rails there, but that’s only where the history of the Star Wars universe is concerned. What about the future?

If earlier rumors are still true and the new films are sequels to the original trilogy, maybe they’re origin stories of new characters, possibly the children of Han, Leia and Luke.

We really have no idea, and maybe that’s sort of the point. Disney execs are so incredibly excited about the dollar signs Star Wars represents that the sky is very literally the limit and an endless stream of films a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe is pretty much inevitable.

According to Walt Disney Co. chief financial officer Jay Rasulo, “the market is extremely hot for everything Star Wars.” He continued by saying that the franchise is an “evergreen property” that speaks to younger generations as well as older ones, and proved his point by citing consistent toy sales.

I mean, he’s right, but it’s still probably okay to worry a little bit about Star Wars being overdone to the point of death sometime in the next few decades. Remember that after the next trilogy is off its feet, Disney has said that they’d like to get a new Star Wars movie in theaters each year.

Yet Disney has proven that it’s far more capable of handling the Marvel Universe than 20th Century Fox and others. The first wave of Superhero films (Fantastic Four, The Punisher, Daredevil) were pretty weak, but more recent entries belonging to “Marvel Phase One” have been phenomenal. So… we’ll see.

Which Star Wars character would you like to see in an origins film?