There have been so many reports about the production of Gareth Edward‘s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and how it’s been in trouble. All I care about is the end result, though. Everything I’ve seen from it so far looks amazing! I know a lot of fans like me who are more excited for Rogue One than The Force Awakens. Only time will tell if the movie actually is as great as it looks. 

During a recent investors call, Disney CEO Bob Iger talked about the film and also about the future of the Star Wars franchise. I was surprised to learn that they don’t think Rogue One will do as well as The Force Awakens did. Iger said, “We never felt it would do the level that Force Awakens did.” then added, “The level of interest [in Rogue One] is as high as it was for Force Awakens.” 

Even though the level of interest is as high, that doesn’t mean the box office numbers will be, or the reviews will be as good. It’s strange. You would think with The Force Awakens priming the pump for the future of the franchise a movie like Rogue One would do just as well or better. But who knows, maybe some people aren’t sure what to expect from these Star Wars stories because they are breaking from the original saga.

Iger went on to describe Rogue One as, “an experiment, of sorts,” and says that “It’s really interesting in terms of Star Wars storytelling. Star Wars has only been told as a saga, and this is a moment in time … we love what we’ve seen.” 

It’s great to know that they love what they’ve seen! Of course, if they didn’t like it, he wouldn’t say that to a bunch of Disney investors. He went on to talk about the future plans of the franchise, confirming they have plans for Star Wars films through 2020, a year in which another Anthology film will be released.

“I had a meeting yesterday with Kathy Kennedy and we mapped out — well, we reviewed — the Star Wars plans that we have ’til 2020. We have movies in development for ‘Star Wars’ ’til then, and we started talking about what we’re going to do in 2021 and beyond.”

It’s so cool that these Star Wars films are just going to keep coming year after year. It still really hasn’t sunk in for me because we’ve only seen The Force Awakens, but it’s going to be exciting once Disney and Lucasfilm start rolling out at least two Star Wars films a year. It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on December 16th. I hope it blows Disney’s expectations away!

Via: The Playlist