"No wonder Peter 'Chewbacca' Mayhew is smiling. Not only has he been rescued from obscurity and given the chance to reprise his role as our Wookiee comrade for Episode III, but his contract also stipulates that he'd be required to appear in Episodes 7, 8, and 9."

It's long been known that George Lucas had at least six films in mind when he made the original three. It's taken him until now to pick up where he left off (or rather, where he began) and make the prequel trilogy. Lucas has also suggested in the past that he had ideas for a final three movies, making the Star Wars saga a grand trilogy of trilogies. More recently, however, the Flanneled One denies having considered any post-Return of the Jedi episodes.

The Mayhew contract suggests that, at the very least, Lucas is still keeping his options open, and would rather have Star Wars fans focused on the prequels for now.

It's not surprising that Mayhew's contract would be the one to stipulate further episodes. After all, Chewbacca is one of the only characters with enough longevity to appear in all nine films. If I'm not mistaken, Wookiees live several centuries. It would be interesting to know if Anthony Daniels (Threepio) or Kenny Baker (Artoo) have similar clauses in their contracts; unfortunately, they're not quite as loose-lipped in public as Mayhew is.

Time to start watching to see if Lucasfilm registers episode-vii.com?