Disney CEO Bob Iger Reveals 'Star Wars' Han Solo Spinoff Details, Talks Plans After 'Episode IX'

By Gene Maddaus, Variety

Disney CEO Bob Iger dropped some details about the upcoming Star Wars movies at a USC tech conference on Thursday.

At the conference, where he also confirmed that he’s “definitely” leaving in 2019, he said he has seen Episode 8, The Last Jedi, and addressed how the company is handling the death of Carrie Fisher, who appears extensively in the film.

“We are not changing ‘8’ to deal with her passing. Her performance remains as it was in ‘8,’” he said. “In Rogue One, we created digitally a few characters… We’re not doing that with Carrie.”

Related: Bob Iger Extends Contract as Disney CEO Through Mid-2019

Iger also revealed that the next film, a standalone project on Han Solo, will follow his life from the age of 18 through 24. The film will including “acquiring a certain vehicle and meeting a certain Wookie,” he said. “You’ll also discover how he got his name.”

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, it originally envisioned three new Star Wars films. But the company’s creative team is now working on Star Wars stories that will go well beyond Episode 9, he said. The team is thinking about “what could be another decade and a half of Star Wars stories,” he said.

Iger was otherwise tight-lipped about Episode 8, saying that he sometimes reviews dailies “in my laptop in bed under the covers” to keep the project secret from his own teenage boys.