there will be no ep 7 or ep 8 & 9 for that matter. Why ... well that takes a little explaining.
When Lucas first came up with the idea for "Star Wars" he envisioned it as a 12 part story that would be told in a similar fashion as the old Flash Gordon series. It didn't take him long to realize it wouldn't work that way so it got cut down to a 9 part story. The first trilogy was to be about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. The second trilogy was to be about the rise of Luke Skywalker and the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. The third trilogy was to be about the "other" Skywalker that Yoda mentions in The Empire Strikes Back.
A little known fact is that up until Lucas was almost done writing the script for ep VI Leia was NOT the "other Skywalker". Lucas got stumped on what he could have Vader say to Luke near the end of their duel that would make Luke attack his father in a dark side fueled rage. To solve this problem he made Leia the "other Skywalker" and had Vader threaten her. This change did two things: 1) Made a lot of fans go "eewwww" ... he kissed his sister on the lips; 2) It eliminated the third trilogy. Lucas has many times stated that the story he wanted to tell has been told. If you watch the "extras" disk that comes with the DVD set of the OT you hear him say this many times. He says it in a 60 Minutes interview he did shortly after the release of ep III. In that interview he is asked two or three times if there will be anymore new movies and if he would let someone else pick up where he left off and make more movies ... his answer each time is that same ... NO. History has showed us that Lucas changes his mind with the wind direction sometimes and a statement made over 2 years ago is suspect except for one thing ... his answer has never changed ... it is always a flat out NO. If you think about it it is a big accomplishment for the man.
As for somebody picking up the story and taking it forward after Lucas dies ... NO is the answer to that question also no matter what anybody else says. This "rumor" and the other "juicy" one that seems to be making its way around the net right now, the one where somebody says they ran into Lucas on a beach somewhere and he told him that he was going to make ep 7 - 9 but that he wasn’t going to start them until after 2012, can be traced back to the insane ramblings of Mickey Suttle and his fraud site supershadow.com. This guy is a grade A number 1 fraud and "whack" job ... how he stays out of a padded room I'll never know. This guy is so far gone that he has even faked up hundreds of emails, that he has posted on his site, that are supposed to be conversations between him and Lucas ... they are all pure fiction. Mickey also claims to be an "insider" at LucasFilm and good "buddies" with George himself. Neither of those claims are true either. The only people that he knows from LucasFilm are the lawyers because he has been slapped with so many "get that crap off your site before we crush you like the bug you are" suits that nobody even knows the total anymore.
The being said there is a new Star Wars movie coming to theaters August 15th this year ... it is a full length ANIMATED movie. One thing needs to be made crystal clear in regards to this movie ... it is NOT a new episode of Star Wars ... it is a "fill in the blank" movie set in between episodes II & III and will serve as a kick off for the new Clone Wars series set to debut this fall on the Cartoon Network. The movie will NOT be 3D as some have said. However, in a recent interview in Entertainment Weekly Lucas said that he is still considering making all 6 movies as 3D but as he states in the article, it's not as easy as he thought it would be and that he's still in the R&D for that but that it will happen someday. Here's a couple links to some trailers and other info about the upcoming movie and series:
link
link
link
link
link
Lucas is also working on a live action TV show that will be set in between ep III and ep IV. It will show how the Rebel Alliance was formed and many of their early battles against the Empire leading up to the events of ep IV. This show was originally set to begin in the fall of 2009 but the writters strike and various other things have pushed that start date back to 2010.
May The Force Be With You ...
When Lucas first came up with the idea for "Star Wars" he envisioned it as a 12 part story that would be told in a similar fashion as the old Flash Gordon series. It didn't take him long to realize it wouldn't work that way so it got cut down to a 9 part story. The first trilogy was to be about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. The second trilogy was to be about the rise of Luke Skywalker and the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. The third trilogy was to be about the "other" Skywalker that Yoda mentions in The Empire Strikes Back.
A little known fact is that up until Lucas was almost done writing the script for ep VI Leia was NOT the "other Skywalker". Lucas got stumped on what he could have Vader say to Luke near the end of their duel that would make Luke attack his father in a dark side fueled rage. To solve this problem he made Leia the "other Skywalker" and had Vader threaten her. This change did two things: 1) Made a lot of fans go "eewwww" ... he kissed his sister on the lips; 2) It eliminated the third trilogy. Lucas has many times stated that the story he wanted to tell has been told. If you watch the "extras" disk that comes with the DVD set of the OT you hear him say this many times. He says it in a 60 Minutes interview he did shortly after the release of ep III. In that interview he is asked two or three times if there will be anymore new movies and if he would let someone else pick up where he left off and make more movies ... his answer each time is that same ... NO. History has showed us that Lucas changes his mind with the wind direction sometimes and a statement made over 2 years ago is suspect except for one thing ... his answer has never changed ... it is always a flat out NO. If you think about it it is a big accomplishment for the man.
As for somebody picking up the story and taking it forward after Lucas dies ... NO is the answer to that question also no matter what anybody else says. This "rumor" and the other "juicy" one that seems to be making its way around the net right now, the one where somebody says they ran into Lucas on a beach somewhere and he told him that he was going to make ep 7 - 9 but that he wasn’t going to start them until after 2012, can be traced back to the insane ramblings of Mickey Suttle and his fraud site supershadow.com. This guy is a grade A number 1 fraud and "whack" job ... how he stays out of a padded room I'll never know. This guy is so far gone that he has even faked up hundreds of emails, that he has posted on his site, that are supposed to be conversations between him and Lucas ... they are all pure fiction. Mickey also claims to be an "insider" at LucasFilm and good "buddies" with George himself. Neither of those claims are true either. The only people that he knows from LucasFilm are the lawyers because he has been slapped with so many "get that crap off your site before we crush you like the bug you are" suits that nobody even knows the total anymore.
The being said there is a new Star Wars movie coming to theaters August 15th this year ... it is a full length ANIMATED movie. One thing needs to be made crystal clear in regards to this movie ... it is NOT a new episode of Star Wars ... it is a "fill in the blank" movie set in between episodes II & III and will serve as a kick off for the new Clone Wars series set to debut this fall on the Cartoon Network. The movie will NOT be 3D as some have said. However, in a recent interview in Entertainment Weekly Lucas said that he is still considering making all 6 movies as 3D but as he states in the article, it's not as easy as he thought it would be and that he's still in the R&D for that but that it will happen someday. Here's a couple links to some trailers and other info about the upcoming movie and series:
link
link
link
link
link
Lucas is also working on a live action TV show that will be set in between ep III and ep IV. It will show how the Rebel Alliance was formed and many of their early battles against the Empire leading up to the events of ep IV. This show was originally set to begin in the fall of 2009 but the writters strike and various other things have pushed that start date back to 2010.
May The Force Be With You ...
