Star Wars Spinoff Films Coming

It's a Star Wars avalanche: In addition to the coming Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, Disney plans to produce a number of spinoff movies that revolve around certain characters, CEO Robert Iger tells CNBC. No word yet on which characters will be featured in the standalone films (rumor is Yoda is up first), but Iger says they are "great ... characters that are not part of the overall saga."

Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill, The Bodyguard, the list goes on...) is working on the new films with Simon Kinberg (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes), and JJ Abrams recently confirmed he will in fact be directing Episode VII, E! notes. "The implications for Star Wars fans will be great," Iger promised. "There are these good ideas out there and good creators interested in fleshing out these ideas, and we're going for it." (More Star Wars stories.)