The next and eighth episode in the Star Wars saga will premiere on December 15, 2017, seven months later than originally planned, Disney and Lucasfilm announced Wednesday.
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Given that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a huge December success, Disney insiders commented that Episode VIII should be given the same Christmas treatment. It’s scheduled for the same December 15 weekend in 2017.
The Star Wars movies are considered family movies as people from all ages and every generation are fans, so it makes sense that the holidays would be a good time to show them in theaters.
Now, for “Star Wars: Episode VIII”, the studio and filmmakers are going to the same page in the playbook. Additionally, Episode VIII’s old release date wasn’t even cold before Disney moved Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales into it. My educated guess is that Avatar 2 and Ready Player One will start to look for newer release dates. Lawrence Kasdan has worked on four “Star Wars” screenplays, including “The Force Awakens” and a forthcoming Han Solo film.
All six previous Star Wars movies have been May releases until The Force Awakens.
There are also rumors that the director for “Star Wars: Episode VIII” Rian Johnson will rewrite the script in order to put more focus on the new characters seen in the recent film as requested by fans, said Cinema Blend. The film was directed by J.J. Abrams and featured original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill reprising their roles.
According to BGR, unconfirmed reports stated that the reason for postponing the upcoming film’s release was because Disney executives want to add more character development to the film’s new trio of protagonists Rey, Finn and Poe.
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In the meantime, devotees will be able to enjoy franchise spin-off movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is slated to open in December (16).
