Disney has confirmed that its planned spin-off Star Wars movies will be origins stories.

The studio, which bought all rights to the long-running space opera saga last October with its purchase of LucasFilm for $4.05bn, has long said it plans a new film each year from 2015. These will consist of a new trilogy of movies, starting with Star Wars: Episode VII, and a variety of standalone films which have been rumoured to feature characters from the original trilogy that ran between 1977 and 1983.

Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo said last week during a conference call with investors that each of these spin-off movies would be an "origins story film". Of Star Wars as a whole, he said the saga was "not a new franchise for kids," but added that the property was ripe for exploitation. "The sky's the limit," said Rasulo. "There's incredible flexibility. It's an unbelievable palette to create from."

Rasulo's comments have provided succour for fans excited at the prospect of new movies featuring iconic figures such as Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobe, Han Solo and Boba Fett set within the timeline of the original trilogy. There have been suggestions that Disney's spinoff films will be in a similar vein to the plethora of character-based superhero movies that have emerged in the past few years under its wholly-owned Marvel Studios banner

"The first standalone film is going to centre upon Yoda, wrote Harry Knowles of Aint It Cool News in February. "At this stage, specifics are sparse, but Kathleen Kennedy is putting together a Star Wars slate." Entertainment Weekly later reported that sardonic space smuggler Solo and bounty hunter Fett would also get their own films, and there have also been hints that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine could return.

Star Trek's JJ Abrams was revealed in January as the director who will take on Star Wars Episode VII, which is being filmed in London early next year. Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt is overseeing the screenplay for the debut instalment, while Disney has revealed that The Empire Strikes Back's Lawrence Kasdan and Sherlock Holmes' Simon Kinberg will write two of the standalone "origins" films.

The stars of the original trilogy, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Ford (Han Solo), have all been tipped to return to the series.