'Star Wars' Spin-Offs Won't Mess With Skywalker Saga Episodes

With 90% of what Disney and Lucasfilm have planned for Star Wars still a mystery, any comment from one of the principals becomes noteworthy. Those principals are the man (metaphorically) signing the checks, Disney CEO Bob Iger, the director of Star Wars Episode VII J.J. Abrams, and the president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. Over the past few months Kennedy has probably been the most frank on the topic, when and if she surfaces from endless meetings to discuss it.

One of those occasions happened this week when she spoke to The Straits Times in Singapore about upcoming Lucasfilm work in that country. Kennedy discussed the proposed Star Wars Origin spin-off films and addressed the worry some have those films would tarnish the memory of the original trilogy. Read her quotes below.

The below quotes from the Straits Times, via Toys Revil. Here's the main one.

George [Lucas] was so clear as to how that works. The canon that he created was the Star Wars saga. Right now, Episode Seven falls within that canon. The spin-off movies, or we may come up with some other way to call those films, they exist within that vast universe that he created....There is no attempt being made to carry characters (from the standalone films) in and out of the saga episodes. Consequently, from the creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George made pretty clear.

Lots of minuscule little points here:

  • Episode VII falls in the Star Wars canon (duh).
  • They aren't set on what to call the spinoff films.
  • The characters in the spinoffs will not appear in Saga episodes.
  • That last point is the most interesting one. If standalone characters aren't going to be carried into Saga episodes, it suggests the first two films might not be Boba Fett and Han Solo. Since Han Solo is in Episode VII, maybe the other film will in fact be Yoda. (He and Boba Fett are both dead, at least in the film canon, are they not?) Or maybe Kennedy just misspoke or the reporter misinterpreted. Either way, it's something to think about.

    The Straits Times also has this video up on the story. Check it out.