'Star Wars' Live Action TV Series to Launch on Disney Streaming Service
The "Star Wars" franchise is ever-expanding. Apart from ongoing film developments, an upcoming live action TV series is slated to debut on Disney's digital streaming service which should launch sometime in 2019.
Last Thursday, during a quarterly earnings call with investors, Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger announced the news. It will be the first live-action TV series in the franchise. On the other hand, there have already been five animated shows, the first of which was the 1985 "Star Wars: Droid." It aired on ABC way before the network belonged to the same corporate umbrella as LucasFilm.
Additionally, Iger announced that the company is also looking into licensing programming from third parties. ABC Studios, which is also owned by Disney, might produce content for the new streaming service.
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As of now, the pricing for the platform has yet to be confirmed but they are aiming to make it less than the price of Netflix, which is $11 per month for the standard plan.
The exec also confirmed that the franchise will continue to expand through a new trilogy of films, with "Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson tasked to spearhead the project.
"Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored," the official announcement from LucasFilm, a studio owned by Disney, revealed.
The new trilogy will be different from the continuing Skywalker saga. Johnson will pen and direct the first film in this trilogy.
The next installment of the franchise "The Last Jedi" is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 15. The Han Solo-centered film, "Solo: A Star Wars Story," which should detail the former smuggler's past, should hit theatres on May 25, 2018. Meanwhile, the J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Wars: Episode IX" premieres on Dec. 20, 2019.
