Corona | Coming Attractions

Last week Lucasfilm was forced to release an official press release that expanded on the additional Star Wars films that Disney is developing and that are unrelated to the three new Episodes that supposedly will continue on the saga of the Skywalker family. In their company announcement Disney said that writers Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg were working on two stand-alone Star Wars movies, but that the storylines and characters weren't discussed.

The likely reason that Lucasfilm and Disney needed to issue their announcment was due to the blast wave of rumors that had just unfolded. It began with a published report on Ain't It Cool that said one of the stand-alone Star Wars pictures would be centered on Yoda, the green Jedi Master introduced in The Empire Strikes Back. Then came an exclusive from Entertainment Weekly that said the two non-Episode Star Wars flicks would be on a young Han Solo and Boba Fett.

Whatever the case may be on which report is right (or even if they're both correct), it caused the online movie community to go into much speculation -- and that is what forced Lucasfilm's hand and caused them to issue their statement confirming Kasdan and Kinberg writing their two Star Wars stand-alone films.

Two days ago Kasdan was cornered by the Los Angeles Times and asked if he could reveal what his Star Wars movie that he is writing is about. He dodged the question and instead went into an answer that did provide us some illumination on at least what sort of direction he wants to take with his story.

"I’m trying to start fresh,” he told the publication. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it’s all new.”

That's probably the closest someone closely connected to George Lucas will say that the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies sucked, and that his Star Wars film will get back to the magic ingredients that made the original trilogy so beloved by its fans.

Whether Kasdan (who wrote the screenplay for Return of the Jedi as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark) is writing a Star Wars movie that uses a young Han Solo or the return of nefarious armored bounty hunter Boba Fett remains up in the air. While he did say that what we was working on was new, that could simply be a confirmation that these new stand-alone Star Wars movies will not involve any of the trilogies' main characters, such as the Skywalkers, the droids or other supporting characters.

However, isn't it curious that the man who wrote the on-screen exit of Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi could be writing a solo movie featuring that same character? One might even say that it makes sense to have the same writer who had Boba Fett swallowed by the Sarlacc figure out a way to bring the bounty hunter back into the Star Wars universe's fold, as it was done in the expanded universe's series of Star Wars books.