Get excited. A new Star Wars Trilogy is coming!!!

Update: Lucasfilm have responded to the rumour here.

We must have seen that banner posted a thousand times since George Lucas squared off the prequel trilogy, but this comes from a pretty solid source. According to the IESB, Lucas is planning to bring a brand new STAR WARS trilogy to the screen. The new movies will start production just as soon as the planned STAR WARS 3D re-releases have played out on the big-screen. The new films will be financed from the profits from said re-releases, which start with the roll out of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE sometime in 2012, and the new films will start production in 2016/ 2017.

IESB were one of the first websites to confirm news that REVENGE OF THE SITH was to get a PG-13 rating; they were first to reveal plans for a STAR WARS TV show and the recent animated series.

They add that the new sequel, yes – SEQUELS, will have nothing to do with any of the TV series (the live-action show has 50 scripts ready to go), or to do with the Skywalker family.

Check it out.

The ideal plan, according to our spy at Skywalker Ranch, is to be able to release a new Star Wars film within 24 months after the release of the last re-re-release (is that right?) of Return of the Jedi 3D.

Too early for story details but one thing that our source is certain about, they will not be prequels but instead sequels. It’s not for certain if they will be the long awaited Episodes 7, 8 and 9 but could instead be Episodes 10, 11 and 12 or possibly even further out in the Star Wars timeline. And by giving space in the timeline, possibly even as far as 100 years or 1,000 years in the Star Wars universe future, Lucas avoids having to make these stories “fit in” with what the previous stories have told.

More here.

Read our own Tom Fordy’s views on the STAR WARS 3D planned releases. I think he will soon be changing his opinion if these releases were to finance a new trilogy. Eh Fordy?