“Star Wars: Episode VIII” Gets A Release Date; First “Star Wars” Spin Off Movie To Be Called “Rogue One”
Today during a Disney shareholder meeting, Bob Iger, announced the release date of “Star Wars: Episode VIII” will be May 26, 2017. He also confirmed that Rian Johnson (“Looper”) is set to director the next sequel in the new “Star Wars” trilogy.
Since every “Star Wars” movie has always been released in May, Disney and Lucafilm originally planned a May release date for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” They soon realized that there was not enough time for J J Abrams to adequately work and edit the final cut of the film to release it this May and the movie was pushed back to December 18, 2015. Having “Star Wars: Episode VIII” is a welcome return for fans and “Epidsode VIII” will actually be released 40 years and 1 day from the original release date of “Star Wars,” which was released on May 25, 1977.
Bob Iger wasnt done there. He also revealed the title for the first “Star Wars” spin off movie will be titled: “Star Wars: Rogue One.”
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.
Source: StarWars.com