Star Wars: Episode 8 Release Date and Director Confirmed

Disney and Lucasfilm have finally revealed some concrete details about the next two films in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise via an annual shareholder call.

‘Star Wars: Episode 8′ - a direct sequel to this December’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ - will be released on May 26, 2017 and ‘Looper’ director Rian Johnson is on board to write and direct.

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The film’s release date has been timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the release of the first film in the franchise back in 1977.

Above: Director Rian Johnson

Along with details on ‘Episode 8′, the call also revealed that the first ‘Star Wars’ spin-off, directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Felicity Jones, will be ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’. That’s is coming to cinemas on 16 December 2016.

Here’s the full press release:

This morning at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, across the street from Lucasfilm, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger hosted a shareholder meeting where he announced news regarding the first Star Wars stand-alone movie as well as Star Wars: Episode VIII.

Rogue One is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything. The idea for the story of Rogue One came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. He will executive produce along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) are on board to produce and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce. The film starts shooting this summer in London and is due for release on December 16, 2016.

In addition, Iger confirmed that Rian Johnson will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. The film, which continues the saga after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is set for release on May 26, 2017 — forty years and a day after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Johnson is widely considered one of cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers, having directed the modern sci-fi classic, Looper, as well as Brick and The Brothers Bloom. He was also behind the camera for three episodes of the critically-acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad, including “Ozymandias,” which series creator Vince Gilligan named as the best installment of the show. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman, producer of Looper, Don Jon, Brick, and The Brothers Bloom, are on board to produce.

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Image credit: Disney