Walt Disney Co. said on Thursday that “Iron Man” and “The Jungle Book” director Jon Favreau has signed on to executive produce and write a live-action “Star Wars” series for Disney’s upcoming standalone streaming service. “I couldn’t be more excited about Jon coming on board to produce and write for the new direct-to-consumer platform,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement. During the company’s most recent quarterly conference call in February, Disney Chief Bob Iger said they were developing a few “Star Wars” series specifically to stream on it’s forthcoming service. Disney did not provide a release date for Favreau’s live-action “Star Wars” series, nor did it give insight into the story Favreau would delve into. The long-awaited streaming service is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2019. Favreau, who has a role in the upcoming film “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” is currently in production for Disney’s update of “The Lion King,” which is also set to be released in 2019. Shares of Disney have declined more than 6% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 15%.
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