We just had the most successful launch of Flash in history and we’re already working on the next version. It’s too early to give away much information on the release but I do have a few things to tell you.

With these words Mike Donway announce that Macromedia is already working on Flash 9!
Obviuosly there aren’t news about new features or similar things…but it’s sure that Flash 9 will support Actionscript 3 (that will be introduced by Flex 2 and Flash Player 8.5), and it seems that – also for give to developers the opportunity to “meet” As3 as soon as possibile – in Spring 2006 (when Player 8.5 will be released) Macromedia will release a public alpha for Flash Professional 8 or Studio 8 registered users!
You can find more news here