With the internet still aflutter with the news that Disney has purchased Lucasfilm, you may have begun to wonder, "what would Luke Skywalker make of all this?"
Well, wonder no longer, because Luke (well, Mark Hamill) has been talking about the takeover, as well as the news that at least three more Star Wars movies are in the planning stages. In fact, Hamill reveals that George Lucas told him about the plans to make a Star Wars Episode VII about a year ago.
"He did tell us last summer about wanting to go on and do [Episodes] VII, VIII, and IX," Hamill told Entertainment Weekly yesterday, "and that [newly appointed Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy would be doing them."
Apparently, Lucas made the revelation over lunch with Hamill and co-star Carrie Fisher. Hamill, expecting Lucas to talk about the long-mooted Star Wars TV series or maybe even Lucas' approaching retirement, was instead confronted with the news that three more Star Wars movies were in the offing.
"I was just gobsmacked," Hamill said, before admitting to his ambivalence about continuing the Star Wars saga still further. "I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be [...] But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material."
As for Disney's acquisition about Lucasfilm, Hamill said he had "mixed feelings" about that, too, but added that "they haven’t done badly by Marvel and the Muppets and Pixar."
Hamill was unsurprisingly tight-lipped about what those future Star Wars movies might contain - assuming George Lucas told him anything at all. Could Lucas have called Hamill and Fisher to his little lunchtime meeting to discuss the possibility of their appearing in the seventh Star Wars movie?
There's certainly the outside possibility that there might be room in the story for older versions of their characters, depending on when Episode VII is set. But given just how well-guarded the secret of both the movie and the Disney deal was, we probably won't have confirmation of this for some time yet.
You can read the full interview over on Entertainment Weekly.
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