Rumor: ‘EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ writer Lawrence Kasdan could script ‘EPISODE VIII & IX’?

Star Wars fans, go ahead and tug your bits to this rumor. It’s designed to titillate all your various nerd glands. There ain’t any shame, I promise. Draw the blinds, and get slushy in your pantaloons. Lawrence fucking Kasdan! Oh, and some other guy too.

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Deadline report that, while nothing has been signed, Disney have made approaches to Lawrence Kasdan andSimon Kinberg to write the scripts for Episode VIII and Episode IX, presumably respectively. Kasdan’s credits include “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill,” “Silverado,” “The Bodyguard” and, most recently,“Darling Companion,” but he also has a long history with Lucas, penning both “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and, crucially, “The Empire Strikes Back,” the first “Star Wars” sequel, and the one deemed by anyone with a brain and a heart to be the best of the series. There’d be a nice circularity to him working on the middle installment of the series, even if Kasdan’s been off his game for a while (remember “Dreamcatcher?”…)

Kinberg probably won’t make fans so happy; he broke through with the script for “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” and also has credits on “Sherlock Holmes,” “Jumper” and “This Means War,” the latter two of which he was also a producer on. He’s probably best known for his involvement in the “X-Men” franchise, though; he was one of the writers on “X-Men: The Last Stand,” produced “X-Men: First Class,” and is back behind a copy of final draft for the upcoming “X-Men: Days Of Future Past.”

We suppose that he’s a relatively safe pair of franchise hands, but we honestly can’t think of a project that Kinberg’s been involved in that we liked, so if Kennedy and Disney are after someone to deliver a finale to the new trilogy of a “Return Of The Jedi” level of quality, they might have the right guy (and to clarify, that’s not a compliment). Still, maybe he’ll end up rising to the occasion. Neither are confirmed at this point, but we can’t see any reason why either writer would turn down the gig, so expect an official announcement soon.