Disney is acquiring Lucasfilm (including LucasArts) and is targeting Star Wars Episode VII for release in 2015, the company announced this afternoon. After 35 years of independence, founder and CEO George Lucas is passing ultimate leadership of the Star Wars franchise and all the rest of the company’s properties to The Walt Disney Company.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” Lucas said in a statement. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”

Disney plans to start another trilogy with Episode VII, the company revealed in a post-announcement conference call. Episode VII is in early development, and Disney release a new Star Wars feature film every two to three years, with Lucas as creative consultant.

The deal includes all of Lucasfilm’s portfolio, including Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and as previously mentioned, LucasArts. Disney similarly acquired Marvel Comics in 2009 and Pixar in 2006. The worldwide company also owns television channels ABC and ESPN, among many other media entities.

Does this mean the next Kingdom Hearts will have a Grim Fandango Land of the Dead world? Probably not, but given this news anything is possible.

UPDATE: Disney plans to “focus more on mobile and social than we are on console” games, and will look more into licensing games than publishing them, according to the conference call. We’ve reached out to LucasArts on how this will impact its operations and will update this article with any response.

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You play as Guybrush Threepwood, a young man with one thing on his to-do list–to become mighty pirate. Your first order of business when you begin the game is to tackle the three trials, which must be completed before you can officially become a buccaneer. One of the more involved trials is to train Guybrush in the arts of swordfighting so that he can challenge the legendary swordmaster of Melee Island. Rest assured, there is still some stabbing and dodging going on, but to hone your skills to face the most revered swordmaster on the island, you must sharpen your wits more than your sword, and face pirates from all over the island in battle to see who can hurl the best insults. Not only is this a great way for point-and-click adventures to do combat, but it spawned some of the best video game quotes.

Guybrush Threepwood may not be the kind of pirate-wannabe you’d identify with, but you can’t help but feel a bit sorry for him. He’s young, eager, and not very good with the ladies, but his heart is in the right place. What the governor Elaine Marley sees in him, we’ll never know, but he certainly beats the ghost pirate LeChuck in terms of looks and…the being alive part. Guybrush doesn’t exactly have a ton of competition when it comes to winning Elaine’s heart, but he will have to rescue her from the clutches of LeChuck if he wants to be with her. And that’s where we get to the good part: find Monkey Island and try to uncover its secrets—while avoid being eaten by vegetarian cannibals.

The game doesn’t just set you up to do a rescue mission from the get go, it gives you time to get to know the lovable protagonist and the cast of quirky characters around the island. You’ll have to recruit some them to join your crew later, but the first part of the game is really about exploration, solving puzzles, and ultimately becoming a true, honest-to-goodness, swashbuckling pirate. What made The Secret of Monkey Island stand out at the time it was originally released was that you didn’t have to worry about taking a wrong turn or saying the wrong thing, it’s not going to get you killed. And you wouldn’t be screwed if you didn’t save 10 seconds beforehand. There’s only one way to die in Monkey Island and it requires a bit of patience–10 minutes of patience to be exact, while you wait for Guybrush to drown.

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