In a recent interview Star Wars leading man Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker, has admitted that he and co-star Carrie Fisher have known since August about the recent sensational news that the Star Wars Saga is now expanding to include Episodes VII, VIII and IX.

 ”[L]ast August, [Big George] asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that I’ve heard about — which I don’t think we were going to be involved in anyway, because that takes place between the prequels and the ones we were in and, if Luke were in them, he’d be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager so they’d get an age-appropriate actor — or the 3-D releases.

So when he said, “We decided we’re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,” I was just gobsmacked. “What? Are you nuts?!” [Laughs] I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories.

But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. It’s one of those things: people either just don’t care for it or are passionate about it.

I guess that defines what cult movies are all about. We’ll see. I’m anxious to know what’s going on, but the main story [yesterday] was the sale to Disney. I have mixed feelings about that, but they haven’t done badly by Marvel and the Muppets and Pixar. It’s one of those big decisions that at first seems unusual but then the more you look at it, the more it makes sense.”

Hamill was unable to offer any information as to possible storylines or whether the new adventures will feature returning roles for original trilogy cast members but confirmed that Lucas had been meeting with writers at that time months before Disney’s shock acquisition of Lucasfilm.

The LA Times has since reported that Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy  were indeed meeting with several

“well-known screenwriters with experience creating big-budget Hollywood films who were pitching ideas for  new story, not ones adapted from existing Star Wars Books.”