The next new Star Wars movie will be animated, and will lead in to the premiere of Star Wars: Rebels
Star Wars: Rebels will launch as a movie on Disney XD this Summer. Fans may remember that Star Wars: The Clone Wars also was launched as a movie back in 2008, although that was given a limited theatrical release. No word on whether Star Wars: Rebels will receive a similar treatment.
The news comes via a Walt Disney Company shareholder letter (although we owe a tip of the hat to Jedi News for turning us on to it) that describes some of the company's plans for Star Wars: Rebels. The relevant section of it reads:
"...the rich universe of Star Wars has tremendous creative potential for the entire company. While the world eagerly awaits Episode VII to open in theaters, we’re introducing Star Wars Rebels to television audiences this summer with a movie and a series of shorts on Disney Channel, followed by a continuing series on Disney XD. Our success in building a robust pipeline of original Star Wars content for various platforms will be an integral part of our long-term strategy to leverage the franchise across a variety of our businesses, from theme parks to consumer products."
The "series of shorts" sounds like the approach that Disney took with the (greatly missed) Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon. In the lead up to that show's launch, there were 20 micro-episodes used to introduce the various Avengers and their foes. Given Star Wars' roots in classic movie serials, this approach should work very well! Between this, and the reveal of these very cool Imperial propaganda posters, Star Wars: Rebels has our attention!
You can read the complete memo here, if you're into that sort of thing.
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