There wasn’t much about Star Wars at San Diego Comic-Con this year, which struck observers as odd since we’re two years out from its 2015 arrival. But everybody figured that it was going to be Disney’s centerpiece for their event D23, basically a huge corporate Disney convention, so we all shrugged it off. Now D23 is over and we’re happy to report… well, absolutely jack. Disney only confirmed that it’s on the way, Abrams is directing, spin-offs are coming, and that’s it. So what’s going on?
While some nerds are working themselves into a bit of a froth over the total lack of revelations, one suspects it’s the exact opposite of the more paranoid conspiracy theories. Disney doesn’t have anything to say not because J.J. Abrams wants to try and pretend Mark Hamill is playing Bob the Farmer instead of Luke Skywalker, but because they don’t have anything to say. In fact, I’m skeptical that what they actually did say is really entirely set in stone.
It’s worth noting that Disney is in a tricky, tricky position right now. They’ve got Star Wars, which is a big deal… but they’ve also got Marvel, which has a lot of movies in the pipe and is arguably an even bigger deal right now. Certainly it’s a bigger deal financially; you can bet a lot of studio attention was aroused when Iron Man 3 made more than a billion freaking dollars. If Thor: The Dark World cleans a lot more house than the last movie, Disney is going to be facing a genuine conundrum.
So, we’ll see, but don’t be surprised if Star Wars: Episode VII sees a slight delay. And one way or the other, the hype machine will get cranking soon enough.