Disney boss Bob Iger confirms 'Star Wars' movie 'hiatus'

Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that he plans to put the Star Wars movies into a 'hiatus' after the release of episode nine, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

According to Variety, he made the announcement during an earnings call to shareholders yesterday.

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However, he added that rather than putting the whole of the franchise on ice for the time being, the focus on TV.

The Mandalorian, the flagship show for the soon-to-launch Disney+ streaming platform, will air its first episode next week.

There is also an Obi-Wan Kenobi series featuring Ewan McGregor in the offing, and a third series centring around Diego Luna's Cassian Andor, star of the Rogue One spin-off movie.

Iger added that the first Mandalorian screenings have been for fan outlets, and that critics will have to wait in order to avoid 'spoilers' leaking out.

The Disney studio boss has previously mentioned the possibility of putting the Star Wars franchise into carbonite.

He told Bloomberg in April this year: “We will take a pause, some time, and reset.”

Iger has also previously said that he now regrets releasing so much new Star Wars content so quickly, after Disney bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas in 2012 for $4 billion.

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“I just think that we might’ve put a little bit too much in the marketplace too fast,” he told the New York Times.

The news comes after Lucasfilm parted ways with Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, who were set to plan a brand new trilogy of movies in the Star Wars series.

Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi, is also thought to be working up a plan for three more movies too.

But by the sounds of it, it could be some time before we see them.