There was a time when movie fans had to genuinely wonder when, if ever, they would see another Star Wars movie. There was a time when you could have a baby in the space between Marvel movies. That time has come and gone. And if it were up to Disney, that dark period wherein the big screen didn't have lightsabers or Iron Man suits will never, ever return.
That's not exactly a bombshell. Those movies make boatloads of money and so of course a company is going to want to keep making them, but Disney CEO Bob Iger (pictured above) acknowledged the now infinite nature of these franchises directly when he told the BBC that Marvel "will go on forever" and that of course there will absolutely be more Star Wars movies beyond the four titles currently in production.
So how does Disney plan to make sure audiences don't actually grow tired of new Star Wars and Marvel movies every few months? Iger's got a simple answer. "I think we keep raising the bar in terms of telling stories that bring them back, that excite them, that make it feel new and that is what we do for a living." That's surely easier said than done, but the studio definitely has the track record to back everything up for now, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Either way, eventually it won't be what Iger does for a living. He's the mastermind who brought Marvel and Lucasfilm into the Disney family, but his contract expires in June of 2018. He had planned to leave the company back in 2015, but his contract was extended so he'd remain to oversee the Lucasfilm acquisition and the launch of Star Wars. Now that that's happened, unless Iger buys another huge slice of pop culture that needs to be integrated into Disney, he may finally be clear to step down and leave behind one of the most important legacies the entertainment industry has ever seen.
And while we don't know what the forever future of these two megafranchises looks like, we do at least know the near future. In chronological order we have:
May 6, 2016 - Captain America: Civil War
November 4, 2016 - Doctor Strange
December 16, 2016 - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
May 5, 2017 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
November 3, 2017 - Thor: Ragnarok
December 15, 2017 - Star Wars: Episode VIII
February 16, 2018 - Black Panther
May 4, 2018 - Avengers: Infinity War - Part I
May 25, 2018 - Untitled Han Solo Film
July 6, 2018 - Ant-Man and the Wasp
March 8, 2019 - Captain Marvel
May 3, 2019 - Avengers: Infinity War - Part II
July 12, 2019 - Inhumans
2019 - Star Wars: Episode IX
May 1, 2020 - Untitled Marvel Project
That's a lot of movies. And it doesn't even factor in all of the spin-off shows that are currently in the works. Basically, it's a very, very good time to be a geek.
