The cancellation of The Clone Wars was not an isolated incident, it seems.

We’re hearing word that Disney is ceasing the release of all new Star Wars products and merchandise until such time as Episode VII is released.

“Star Wars and the fandom has proved to be a bit more of a handful than Disney was expecting,” our source says. “They knew you guys would be difficult but the reality was a complete shock to the company. Their own fandom is, for the most part, far more accepting and docile. Disney isn’t really used to their decisions being greeted with such outright hatred and protest…”

“They’re going to shut everything down and clear the market for a while while they reaccess the situation. The sequel trilogy is still happening, but it may be delayed as late as 2019, depending on various factors.”

Anything that’s not already deep into the production pipeline – aka actually sitting in a warehouse somewhere – will simply not be coming out. Disney expects the last products to drop early this summer, after which nothing new will be produced until we approach the release of Episode VII… Whenever that ends up being.

Disney has long used their ‘vault’ in the service of making animated releases scarce. This is, to our knowledge, the first time an entire franchise has been placed on hold.

We are, however, hearing that no further layoffs are taking place at Lucasfilm itself, although curiously a series of giant thorn bushes had grown up around such company outposts as the Letterman Digital Arts Center and Skywalker Ranch…