The drivers behind Star Wars clearly have their sights set on creating a Marvel-like universe with spinoffs, and spinoffs of spinoffs. That makes sense, since the driver behind Star Wars is Disney, which also owns Marvel. What’s good for the Super Goose is good for the Jedi Gander. And now we’ve got our first hint at what some of the Star Wars spinoffs might look like. This summer, a standalone Star Wars movie called Rogue One will start filming. The movie will be directed by Gareth Edwards (he handled last summer’s Godzilla), will star Theory of Everything‘s Felicity Jones and will release around Christmas of 2016 (right after Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie releases.) As for the story, all we know is that it will “go well beyond the core Star Wars saga.”
But the core Star Wars saga is still the big tomato here, and we also got word this morning that the follow-up to this year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens will arrive in May of 2017, and will be written and directed by Looper‘s Rian Johnson—right around the time Marvel’s Guardian of the Galaxy sequel will drop. Good time to be a nerd. Great time to be Disney.
