Milk it for All it's Worth, You Will

If I were still ten years old, I’d probably wet myself at this news:

Are you ready for a barrage of Star Wars films? Disney hopes so: according to multiple outlets, the company has just announced at CinemaCon that it will be releasing a new film in the universe every summer, starting in 2015. We had previously heard that Episode VII was destined for a 2015 release, but with today’s development plans have become much clearer. Episode VIII should come out in 2017, followed by Episode IX in 2019. Meanwhile, the standalone films that will focus on particular characters from the Star Wars franchise will be slotted between each of those movies.

But I’m not ten, and I have to wonder if Disney isn’t getting a wee bit too ambitious here.

Then again, maybe they’ll do something interesting. I remember before Barbara Broccoli rebooted the James Bond franchise, some smart critic came up with a great idea: Hire a new actor/director combination for each movie, and see what happens. An Ang Lee-directed Bond? A female lead directed by Quentin Tarantino? Why not! The Bond world is rich enough for endless variety.

And so is the Star Wars galaxy. Shake things up. Have some fun with it, Disney. Hit us with the unexpected. Just don’t make direct-to-home-video quality stuff and expect us to pay top dollar to see it on the big screen.

I’m willing to give Disney the benefit of the doubt — for a while. But I’d better see a lot more Toy Story 3 and a lot less Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.