Walt Disney Pictures CEO Bob Iger spoke with CNBC where he confirmed the rumors that they were looking at doing stand-alone Star Wars movies that would focus on individual characters from the Star Wars Universe. These stories would take place in the Star Wars Universe but not necessarily in the continuity order the regular Episode movies take place. Rumors have suggested that Yoda would be the first character to get this individualized movie treatment, but that has not been confirmed. See Iger's announcement in the video below.




UPDATE: LucasFilms has released an official statement about the spin-off movies:

The Star Wars cinematic galaxy is about to experience a Big Bang. Lucasfilm is officially announcing new spinoff films that will expand the mythos and depths of the Star Wars universe in previously unexplored ways.

One of the standalone films will be written by Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and co-writer of Return of the Jedi while the other will be penned by Simon Kinberg, writer of Sherlock Holmes and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The movies will be separate from the upcoming Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, on which Kasdan and Kinberg are also consulting, and are expected to be released sometime after Episode VII. Each standalone film will focus on a specific character, and two spinoff films are currently confirmed.

In a call to investors, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, revealed while the original focus was on the highly-anticipated sequel trilogy, the idea of spinoff films was bandied about early and the additional films are now becoming a reality. “We are in development of a few standalone films,” he said, “that are not part of the Star Wars saga…there are now creative entities working on developing scripts for what would be those standalone films.”