Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed Star Wars: The Last Jedi will not be affected by the untimely death of Carrie Fisher and revealed plans for the future of the franchise, THR reports.
After announcing the extension of his tenure at Disney until July 2, 2019 at USC this morning, the CEO was interviewed by Willow Bay, the Dean of USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism when he explained the groundbreaking technology used to recreate the likeness of Peter Cushing in the recent Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will not be used for the late Fisher in the upcoming 8th chapter of the Skywalker saga:
“When we bought Lucasfilm, we were going to make three films — Episodes VII, VIII and IX. We had to deal tragedy at the end of 2016. Carrie appears throughout VIII. We are not changing VIII to deal with her passing. Her performance remains as it is in VIII. In Rogue One, we had some digital character. We are not doing that with Carrie.”
Iger also revealed that the studio is developing plans to continue the franchise for another 15 years past the projects that are currently in development which presently extend to the year 2020:
“We’re starting talk about what could happen after Episode IX. About what could be another decade-and-a-half of Star Wars stories.”
The saga continues this holiday season with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The film stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern, Kelly Marie Tran and Andy Serkis.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters December 15, 2017.
Source: THR
