Video: George Lucas Discusses Disney Sale and Making New Star Wars Movies

The Empire has expanded.

First Disney reanimated itself with Pixar. Then it snared Marvel in its web. And now, it, umm, did something... Star Warsy by buying Lucasfilm.

Here's a video of George Lucas and new Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy discussing the deal. In the video, Lucas says he's stepping down because he doesn't want to run a corporation anymore. He also says, "When I first made Star Wars, everybody in Hollywood said this is a movie Disney should have made."

Then...

"I always thought I wasn't going to do any more. That's true...But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more. I have story treatments of [Star Wars episodes] 7,8 and 9 and a bunch of other movies, and obviously we have hundreds of books and comics...

"We are absolutely going to make Star Wars movies," said Kennedy. "We're in the midst of...sitting down with a couple of writers and we're starting to discuss ideas and we're starting to talk about what those stories might be."

The company is targeting the first film, with the working title "Episode 7," for release in 2015. "That will be followed by Episodes 8 and 9," said Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger in a press release.  "And our long term plan is to release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years.”

Of course, there are skeptics, too...

Everyone's a critic. At least on Twitter.