Everyone in the world is suddenly buzzing about Star Wars. This afternoon it was announced that The Walt Disney Company has signed a deal to acquire Lucasfilm, the company founded by George Lucas, and will be moving forward with the Star Wars franchise, planning to release Episode VII in 2015 and more sequels beyond that.
But fans know that Star Wars isn’t the only major franchise held by Lucasfilm – they have the rights to the series of Indiana Jones movies as well. So what’s going to happen with the future of everyone’s favorite professor/adventurer?
For now, the answer is apparently nothing. Following the announcement of the major acquisition executives from the Walt Disney Company held a conference call, and when the subject of Indiana Jones came up Bob Iger said that the character was not factored into the equation during the deal. This is because Paramount Pictures, which distributed the previous movies featuring the character, still has a contract in place. How the situation may change in the future is unknown at this time.
So how did Disney get away with making new Star Wars movies? While 20th Century Fox handled all six previous movies in that sci-fi universe, apparently they don’t have the rights for any future films, which is what allowed Disney to step in and take the reins of the franchise.
Obviously this can be taken two ways: some may want to see a new Indiana Jones adventure, while others still feel burned by the fourth installment of the franchise and just want to see it end. Where do you stand?
