‘Star Wars: Episode XIII’ release date pushed back seven months

The original release date for Star Wars: Episode VIII was to be May 26, 2017 but will now be December 15, 2017. With the anticipation already at a fever pitch for the next film, Disney may be making Christmas the “Star Wars” holiday at the movies.

Then last week, Boyega only furthered fan speculation when he told Vogue UK that the next movie is “much darker” than “The Force Awakens”.

The Force Awakens has been smashing box office records since its release on December 18, 2015, becoming the third highest-grossing movie worldwide, and the highest-grossing in American cinema history.

The additional time for “Star Wars 8” is probably good news to director Rian Johnson (“Looper”), who’s doing rewrites to give more prominence to some of the more popular secondary characters from “The Force Awakens”.

With “Star Wars: Episode VIII” jumping to December, Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” will set sail on May 26, 2017, from its previously scheduled July 7, 2017, berth. This actually puts it in direct competition with Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros’ Ready Player One, which is scheduled to open on the same day.

It may not be coincidence that after “The Force Awakens” went galactic in December that “Episode VIII” was moved to open in the same holiday month. The film was originally set to release on July 28, 2017 but Sony Pictures has bumped-up that release date by two-weeks. Star Wars: Rogue One is the first in a series of Star Wars Anthology films; the second film in this Anthology is expected to be a Han Solo origin story. The blockbuster franchise’s previous installment, the $1B-grossing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, also debuted in late May.