‘Star Wars: Episode VIII??’ Postponed To December 2017, ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ Takes May 26 Slot


Star Wars: Episode VIII?? is going to be the next installment in the Skywalker series, but fans are going to have to wait an extra seven months for it to be released. Though its original release date was in the summer of 2017, it turns out that Disney has postponed Star Wars: Episode VIII?? until December of 2017, reports the Wall Street Journal.

'Star Wars: Episode VIII??' Postponed To December, 2017, 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Men Tell No Tales' Takes May 26 Slot
Director J.J. Abrams attends the European Premiere of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ [Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Matchless]
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens was originally slated to be released in the summer of 2015, but was pushed back to December to allow filmmakers to continue working on the visual effects for the film. As it turns out, the decision to release The Force Awakens right next to Christmas allowed the film to break December box office records, along with a whole host of other records. Are VFX the reason that Star Wars: Episode VIII is being rescheduled for December? Or is Disney looking to capitalize on the success The Force Awakens had during its winter release and recreate that box office magic again? As of right now, details on why Episode VIII is being postponed are not being offered up.

Star Wars‘ first anthology movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is going to be released in December of 2016. Maybe Disney has decided that they will own the month of December, particularly the week before Christmas, with all of their Star Wars releases. If this is the case, it will certainly begin to scare off other films attempting to compete during that time of year.

Rogue One is going to feature Chinese actor Donnie Yen, whose character is still unknown. Speaking with USA Today, Yen said that his character “is definitely an important guy,” and he claims “I will get some action,” which is no surprise, considering Donnie Yen is a Hong Kong martial arts star, who is also starring in Ip Man 3. James Earl Jones is also expected to return as the voice of Darth Vader in Rogue One.

'Star Wars: Episode VIII??' Postponed To December, 2017, 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Men Tell No Tales' Takes May 26 Slot
Mark Hamill. [Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]
Star Wars: Episode VIII was originally going to be released on May 26, 2017, and since it is being moved to December, this means that another film is going to have to take that May 26 slot. Deadline reports that Disney will be releasing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on May 26, 2017, replacing Star Wars: Episode VIII. Dead Men Tell No Tales is going to be the fifth entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, starring Johnny Depp returning as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pre-production on Episode VIII, being written and directed by Rian Johnson, is still on schedule, despite the seven-month delay, with the eighth film beginning its principal photography in London. “Stay tuned for exciting updates in the coming weeks,” Lucasfilms and Disney promised in their statement. Filming will begin in February with Diasy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill returning to reprise their roles. While Disney has not officially confirmed whether or not Hamill or Fisher will be returning, it’s a safe bet to assume that they will be.

Apparently, director Rian Johnson is currently working on rewrites for Star Wars: Episode VIII, according to the Meet the Movie Press podcast.

“Last week we mentioned Bel Powely and Gina Rodriguez. Now I heard Gina didn’t get it. Now I am told Episode VIII has been pushed about a month. Rian Johnson is going to do another rewrite, and I heard an Asian actress got the role Bel and Gina were up for. But I don’t know if the Bel Powely thing will work out. I said before there were two young female roles, now I actually heard that the rewrite will make these roles smaller. They want to get to know better the characters they already have. So the new rewrite is shrinking the new roles in order to spend more time with Rey, Poe and so on.”

[Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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