A DECADE since George Lucas said “Star Wars” was finished on the big screen, a new trilogy under new ownership is destined for theaters after The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that it would buy Lucasfilm Ltd. from him for US$4.05 billion.

The seventh movie, with a working title of “Episode 7,” is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The trilogy will continue the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond “Return of the Jedi,” the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new “Star Wars” movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as creative consultant in the new movies.

“I’m doing this so that the films will have a longer life,” Lucas, the 68-year-old creator of the series and sole owner of Lucasfilm, said in an interview posted on YouTube.

The deal includes Lucasfilm’s prized high-tech production companies, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, as well as rights to the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

Twitter went wild with the news as fans speculated on mash-up titles for future movies, using the hashtag “DisneyStarWars.” Among the amusing attempts were “When You Wish Upon a Death Star” and “Bambi Wan Kenobi.” “Star Wars,” “LucasArts,” “Disney,” and “Indiana Jones” were all trending topics on Twitter after the deal was announced late Tuesday afternoon.

Fan club co-founder Ming Pan, a graphic designer in San Francisco, said he was glad audiences would get another “Star Wars” movie but worried whether the franchise would thrive after Lucas passes the torch.

Lucas was hailed as a cinematic visionary when the original “Star Wars” came out in 1977. But he had become an object of often-vicious ridicule by the time he started releasing 3D versions of all six films in the franchise this year.

Die-hard fans had been vilifying Lucas for years, convinced that he had become a commercial sell-out and had compounded his sins by desecrating the heroic tale that he originally sought to tell.

They railed against him for adding grating characters such as Jar Jar Binks to the prequel trilogy, which Lucas directed and which came out from 1999 to 2005. They attacked him for tinkering with the original trilogy that spanned 1977 to 1983, too. Revisions in special editions and home video releases were treated as blasphemy.

The criticism grated on Lucas, who vowed never to make another “Star Wars” movie. “Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?” Lucas told The New York Times earlier this year.

Lucas was fed up by the time he released “Red Tails,” a movie depicting the valor of African-American pilots during World War II, earlier this year. He told the Times he was ready to retire from the business of making blockbusters and return to his roots as a student at University of Southern California’s film school.

Kathleen Kennedy, the current co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become the division’s president at Disney and serve as executive producer for the new movies. In the YouTube video, Lucas said the decision to continue with the saga didn’t contradict past statements.

“I always said I wasn’t going to do any more and that’s true, because I’m not going to do any more, but that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more,” Lucas said.

To date, the “Star Wars” movies have grossed US$4.4 billion, and even years after the last film, the franchise continues to make money from merchandising. Disney’s chief financial officer, Jay Rasulo, said that this year alone, “Star Wars” is on track to generate US$215 million in licensing revenue.

Disney plans to make movies, games and TV shows and expand on “Star Wars” theme park attractions that are already present in parks in Anaheim, California, Orlando, Flarida, Paris and Tokyo.

(SD-Agencies)