Disney Developing ‘Star Wars’ TV Series For Its Streaming Service

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Via Thehollywoodreporter.com:

 
Fresh off of news that Game of Thrones creators/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would be creating a new trilogy of Star Wars feature films, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors Tuesday that the company is developing more than one Star Wars TV series.
“We are developing not just one, but a few Star Wars series specifically for the Disney direct-to-consumer app. We’ve mentioned that and we are close to being able to reveal at least one of the entities that is developing that for us. Because the deal isn’t completely closed, we can’t be specific about that,” he said during an earnings call Tuesday. “I think you’ll find the level of talent … on the television front will be rather significant as well.”Iger first announced that Disney was developing a live-action Star Wars TV series in November when he revealed that the company’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer digital platform would also feature a Monsters, Inc. and High School Musical series. It’s unclear if the other Star Wars TV series for the Disney digital platform will also be live-action. The as-yet-untitled Disney digital platform will target families and debut in late 2019, the company said Tuesday. Disney has already pulled its Marvel features from rival Netflix in anticipation of the launch.

While Benioff and Weiss would seem to be prime candidates to create a live-action Star Wars TV series given their success in building HBO’s Emmy-winning genre hit Game of Thrones, Iger used his time with investors Tuesday to explain why they’d be fronting a new trilogy for Disney’s film unit.

“Their interest was in creating a series of films that are Star Wars-based and we’ve actually been talking to them for a long time,” Iger said. “To my knowledge they didn’t express interest in creating a series. They have an idea for a number of films and at some later date I’m sure we’ll disclose to all of you just what those are. They are focused on a point in time in the Star Wars mythology and taking it from there.”

With Benioff and Weiss moving to Star Wars after the final season of Game of Thrones (which will air in 2019), that leaves the future of HBO’s controversial slave drama Confederate in limbo. HBO has yet to make a decision on the future of Confederate; Benioff and Weiss were to begin work on that straight-to-series drama after Thrones wrapped.