As the Star Wars franchise begins to extend towards a new trilogy, Disney have confirmed that there will be some solo films set in the Star Wars universe.

CEO Bob Iger has told CNBC that the planned spin-offs will NOT be linked to the upcoming sequels to be helmed by JJ Abrams. Instead, they will involve The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan who is set to be supported in that department by fellow scriber Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes).

“We are in fact working on a few stand-alone films. Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are both working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga. So we plan to make Star Wars 7, 8 and 9 over roughly a six-year period of time starting in 2015. But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time too.”