The Star Wars storyline will remain faithful to its roots despite fears from hardcore fans that George Lucas yielding the franchise baton to Disney could lead to artistic decline.

In news briefing following the $US4.05 billion deal that would add Lucasfilm Ltd to the portfolio of recent mega acquisitions completed by Disney in recent years, company chief executive Bob Iger said that while the reservations expressed by Star Wars followers were understandable, Disney tradition suggests otherwise.

"Disney respects and understands, probably better than just about anyone else, the importance of iconic characters and what it takes to protect and leverage them effectively," Mr Iger was reported by The Associated Press (AP) as saying on Wednesday.

And some analysts cannot help but to agree.

Earlier buys by Disney were good reference of the giant movie studio's inclination to allow artistic freedom on the entities that were brought under its fold such as the Pixar and Marvel acquisitions that cost the company more than $US11 billion.

Records showed that following deals with Disney, these outfits went on to issue creations that enthralled audiences the world over and in the process generate blockbuster revenues that made everybody happy and satisfied.

Disney is well aware that meddling unnecessary on the creative procedures of its newly added divisions could prove counter-productive, Morningstar analyst Michael Corty told AP.

"I think Disney's intention is that it just doesn't want to get in the way of a great asset," Mr Corty said.

It was mainly hands-off for Disney as both Pixar and Marvel launched movie titles from its deep catalogue of characters that eventually generated billions in global ticket sales, with the company only moving in when it was time to further capitalise on merchandising and other businesses spawned by hit movies like the sequels to 'Toy Story' and 'Cars'.

On Marvel's part, it produced attractive action figures by releasing movies focused on popular Marvel Comics characters such as 'Captain America', 'Thor' and 'Iron Man', which were lumped together in the billion-dollar smorgasbord movie 'The Avengers'.

These ventures padded Disney's collection of characters that the company can then use on its wide network of merchandising businesses and theme parks.

The relationship between Disney and its 'independent divisions', which now include Lucasfilm, is really symbiotic, analysts said, with the Disney prized underlings providing the valuable products and the company taking care of marketing, distributing and all the dirty jobs of bringing the movies nearer to audiences worldwide.

This formula ensures too that the next Star Wars movie will be an Episode as originally intended by Mr Lucas and completely free of any Disney imprint, which analysts said should erase apprehensions that the planned 'Episode 7' come 2015 will not be Disney-flavoured.

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