‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ release delayed to Dec. 2017

Lucasfilm announced the new release date for “Star Wars: Episode VIII” Wednesday on the official Star Wars website, but would not say why the film is being pushed back.

The move not only gives incoming director Rian Johnson additional time to work his magic; it also underscores that any long-lingering myths about the limits of December box office have been vaporized.

This also means we’ll see the new Spider-Man slightly earlier: Sony is shifting the next movie from late July to the date the Pirates formerly had staked out, July 7.

Star wars Episode VIII is now in the pre-production stage, the shooting is expected to commence in London, England in February. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce and J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski will executive produce.

Rewrites are common in filmmaking, especially for big blockbuster films, where there are so many moving parts that filmmakers sometimes need to recalibrate to keep things focused – which makes this rumor about Star Wars: Episode VIII hardly surprising.

“Stay tuned for exciting updates in the coming weeks“, said the announcement. Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow with Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and new villain, Captain Salazar, played by Javier Bardem. Or it could have a lot to do with Disney really liking the holiday release window for Star Wars, as they state in the press release.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set to hit theaters on December 16th, 2016 and will now be followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII on December 15th, 2017.