It’s amazing how much information we get about future movie projects from toy lines. Transformers sequels spoil characters at toy conventions. Spider-Man villains often give their first look in toy catalogues. And some MAJOR, major Star Wars news might have just broke courtesy of a Hasbro event.
The German Web site Star Wars Union (via Geek Tyrant) attended a Hasbro event where the upcoming slate of standalone, solo Star Wars movies was potentially mapped out. Take all of this with the requisite grain of salt, because it has not been confirmed by anyone at LucasFilm, Bad Robot or Disney, but they are reporting that the three planned standalone movies are going to focus on Boba Fett, Han Solo and Red Squadron's X-Wing pilots.
The schedule being reported has the release calendar mapped out as:
2014 – Star Wars: Rebels2015 – Star Wars: Episode VII2016 – Boba Fett2017 – Star Wars: Episode VIII2018 – Han Solo2019 – Star Wars: Episode IX2020 – Star Wars: Red Five
The "Red Five" angle brings up all kinds of possibilities. Anakin Skywalker flew as Red Five during a number of battles in the Clone Wars, including the Battle of Coruscant. Red Five later became Luke Skywalker's callsign in the Battle of Yavin, during the Galactic Civil War. In the Star Wars expanded universe novels, after Luke leaves his X-Wing squad to become a Jedi, Red Five becomes a pilot named Corran Horn. Corran also eventually becomes a Jedi. So, there are several ways that a Red Squadron movie could pull in characters close to Luke, Anakin (or even the characters themselves), or even use other Jedi, depending on when in the timeline this potential story takes place. If it takes place. Speculation!
Here’s where things get really interesting. Geek Tyrant reports that several other Star Wars news sites ran the release schedule, and the Red Five storyline as the base for a sequel, but were told to take the information down. Does that lend it validity? It sounds like it.
The schedule makes sense. And so do the topics. We have been hearing Boba Fett and Han Solo as subjects for standalone films for so long, that it doesn’t surprise me to learn that they are rising to the top of the heap. The X-Wings books are an ideal bit of source material for both a standalone movie AND a new series of films that could pick up the slack after the Star Wars trilogy being launched by J.J. Abrams has run its course. Introducing new members of the Rebel Alliance could allow Disney and Bad Robot to create original heroes, and populate the growing universe with B-list stars who can evolve as massive Star Wars players.
Will this happen? No idea. The Mystery Box approach of J.J. Abrams means that Star Wars secrets are under lock and key. But the standalone movies are being developed alongside Abrams’ Episode VII, and news regarding them will have to start arriving relatively soon if the Star Wars machine wants to stay on track. In the meantime, here is a teaser trailer for Star Wars: Rebels, which now sounds like the first step in a very long journey through the Star Wars universe.
