Beyond the movies, Iger needed to know Lucasfilm had a stockpile of similarly rich material?aka intellectual property?for more Star Wars installments. As any serious aficionado knows, there were always supposed to be nine. But how would Disney assess the value of an imaginary galaxy? What, for example, was its population?

Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, ?We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison?or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ?Look, this is what?s going on.? ? He pauses. ?Maybe I?m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.? Then he adds: ?I won?t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.?