L.Palmer speculates about a hypothesis that the Disney Star Wars films are going to take a page from the Avengers franchise:

There are, after all rumors of Boba Fett and Han Solo standalone films. I don’t disagree with these considerations. But I think the sequel trilogy — Episodes VII-IX, will not be those.

The premise of the Disney sale is that George Lucas is giving Star Wars to the next generation. So I suspect Episode VII will be precisely that handoff. If the rumors are true and Harrison Ford has indeed signed on for the next film, then we are going to see an old Han Solo.

If Hammil and Fisher and Billy Dee Williams (admit it, you want to see Lando Calrissian again) return, they will all be old as well. So the smart move will be to set Episode VII thirty years after Return of the Jedi, much as the last Indiana Jones movie was set nearly 20 years after The Last Crusade. And the purpose of this movie will be either to give our aging heroes one last ride, or to mentor the new generation (and probably, both). Then Episodes VII and IX can be about the new generation.

Who would this new generation be? Probably the children of the old (Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo), and some other jedi, rogues, rebels, and villains. Lord knows the Expanded Universe is full of ideas. But I hope they don’t use too much, because I’ve always found the EU that touch too derivative to ever truly entertain. We don’t want to attempt to recreate the old movies, we want to pay homage to them, and move on. Give us a new story, a new villain, a new conflict, against which the old heroes can hardly find the strength to stand. Give us Beowulf against the Dragon, not against Grendel 2.0.