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Comment by mchanson | Hacker News Reader

I didn't know there was an episode 7 in the works...

Even more shocking: "That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9 – and our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years"

Star Wars has long been envisioned as three trilogies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sequel_trilogy

Yes, I'm a bit of a nerd. Please don't get me started on Star Trek.

Wasn't the lore of Lucas having the entire series 'practically written/envisioned' debunked after people saw how the 'new' trilogy turned out? (ex. metachlorian)

Yes. I recommend _The Secret History of Star Wars_ - as a longtime EU fanatic, I was shocked how many pieces fell into place reading it.

(Incidentally, the narrative of _The Secret History_ means that this sale is particularly interesting; we can see the sale as the definitive death of Lucas's youthful dream of a paradise for indie filmmakers like he was, who were going to revolutionize the staid Hollywood establishment of bloated corporate giants like Disney, the dream which motivated him to produce sequels to the standalone movie _Star Wars_ as cash cows.)

I was a child when the original Star Wars came out, and I was never under the impression that the entire triple trilogy had already been written, though it was always supposed to be nine movies. If anything, he had an idea for its direction, but in hindsight I think that was more salesmanship on his part.

Every two to three years as a long term strategy? All they need to do is get on the super hero kick movie model. 1. Publish Trilogy 2. Reboot 3. Repeat

Supposedly Lucas himself at one time thought about eps 7-9 as another trilogy.

There is also the extended universe (which has traditionally been recognized as canon) that is quite clear about what happened after Return of the Jedi, so there's plenty of material, assuming they don't toss away the entirety of the extended universe...

Lucasfilm is actually pretty cavalier about the extended universe. I went back to read some of those books after some of the prequels came out, and quickly learned two things. First, those books are, for the most part, terrible. Second, the EU actually established a backstory about the Death Star that was totally ignored when Lucas went to write his own backstory.

It's true. I remember just before Empire Strikes Back was released the Detroit Free Press had a full-color section insert with movie artwork and interviews with the movie creators. George Lucas said the cadence was to be episodes 4-6, then 7-9, and then 1-3. If anyone has that newspaper section I'd love to see it again.

It's buried in the press release. Episode 7 in 2015.

They just announced it as part of the acquisition as per my comment below

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