The rumors have been flying since the announcement that Disney is acquiring Star Wars owner Lucasfilm (see “Disney Acquires Lucasfilm”), primarily around Star Wars Episode 7, but on Monday also around another possible acquisition. The Episode 7 rumors started last Thursday, when Aint It Cool News published speculation that a spec script that Damon Lindelof had submitted to Disney was actually the script for the next Star Wars film, with Brad Bird set to direct. 

Then on Monday, Collider linked Matthew Vaughn to Episode 7 as director, arguing that his recent withdrawal as director of X-Men: Days of Future Past (see “Vaughn Out as Next ‘X-Men’ Director”) was to make room for the Star Wars film on his schedule. 

Also on Monday, MTV Geek reported that discussions were underway between Disney and Hasbro about a possible acquisition. This had surfaced as speculation last week, but MTV claims to have it “on good authority.” Hasbro has toy licenses for both Marvel and Star Wars, which would help Disney vertically integrate its toy business. The hobby game licenses have recently been awarded to Fantasy Flight Games (see “Star Wars RPG” and “Wave 2 for FFG’s ‘Star Wars X-Wing Minatures’ Game”), which would seem to slow any move of the licenses to Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. WotC did have the Star Wars license for a number of years in the last decade, but ended the relationship in 2010 (see “WotC Drops Star Wars License”).

It’s perhaps a measure of the scale and importance of the Disney-Lucasfilm deal to geek culture that these stories (and others) are surfacing. Who knows, some of them may even be true. But it’s more likely that speculation has been translated to rumor to possible fact, and that in a few months, when the true ramifications of the deal become more clear, this will be seen as a period of casting about for the meaning of the transaction.