Disney CEO talks all things 'Star Wars' including 'Episode VII' news, 'Rebels' movie coming this summer, and Marvel comics future

Disney CEO Bob Iger made a number of Star Wars announcements in the company's 2013 Shareholder letter released this week. Some of the updates from Iger included news on the highly anticipated, 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII directed by J.J. Abrams as well as a new announcement regarding the animated Disney XD series, Star Wars Rebels.

Though Iger's updates for Episode VII weren't exactly groundbreaking, he does state that the company is very excited for the project.

"It's hard to believe it's already been a year since we acquired the extraordinary Star Wars franchise, but we're well on our way to expanding that epic saga to thrill fans and introduce its iconic characters to a new generation with fantastic new storylines," the CEO said in the Shareholder letter. "After months of public speculation and anticipation, we announced the official release date for the next feature film, Star Wars: Episode VII, will be December 18, 2015. So far we've kept the details to ourselves, but we're thrilled with the story and committed to making an incredible movie, and we should be releasing more information as production moves forward in the coming year."

So we didn't get any new announcements on the Abrams movie, but Iger did mention some exciting news on the other Star Wars projects. For instance, Star Wars Rebels is set to take over the small screen, but Disney plans to introduce us all to that new series with a movie first! 

"While the world eagerly awaits Episode VII to open in theaters, we're introducing Star Wars Rebels to television audiences this summer with a movie and a series of shorts on Disney Channel, followed by a continuing series on Disney XD," Iger said. "Our success in building a robust pipeline of original Star Wars content for various platforms will be an integral part of our long-term strategy to leverage the franchise across a variety of our businesses, from theme parks to consumer products."

Excited for Rebels? Check out these new propaganda posters that were released this week!

He also gave a bit of a teaser for the recently announced Marvel takeover of the Star Wars comic book series.

"As with Marvel, the rich universe of Star Wars has tremendous creative potential for the entire company," he said.