New ‘Star Wars’ Delayed Seven Months, Set To Compete Against ‘Avatar 2’
Star Wars: Episode 8 is getting delayed by seven months. The Force Awakens fans will have to wait seven more months to discover the fate of Rey after Disney bosses postponed the sequel’s release until the end of 2017.
Star Wars: Episode VIII was to be released by May 2017, but it has since been pushed back to December 2017, exactly two years after the record-breaking seventh venture was launched.
#StarWars 'Episode VIII' has been delayed https://t.co/XEw7cz1EHc pic.twitter.com/XLzFRCFIgn
— Variety (@Variety) January 21, 2016
Disney executives are going to release the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, to fill the void left by Star Wars. This new Disney film, which sees Orlando Bloom return as Will Turner, was previously expected to open on July 7, 2017. The movie also stars Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa.
Dates set for @StarWars: Episode VIII and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: https://t.co/Oo73dAu5Vj pic.twitter.com/XOUpMu9DCk
— Disney (@Disney) January 20, 2016
Rian Johnson is set to direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. He took the over directing duties of J.J. Abrams when production begins in London next month.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month, Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan indicated that Episode VIII and IX will be different from The Force Awakens made by J.J Abrams.
“These movies will all be so different,” he said. “Rian Johnson is a friend of mine — he’s going to make some weird thing.”
He further added, “If you’ve seen Rian’s work, you know it’s not going be like anything that’s ever been in Star Wars. You couldn’t have three more different people than JJ, Rian, and Colin [Trevorrow, director of Episode 9]. Those movies will have the Star Wars saga as their basis, but everything else will be different.”
John Boyega has previously spoken about the film, saying it will be much darker than The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke many records and, as reported by the Inquisitr, it was on track to become the highest-grossing film ever. In five weeks of release, it has earned $861 million in the U.S. and $1.88 billion globally. The movie stands tall as the biggest grossing film of the U.S., but it might just fall short of Avatar in overall business.
The new release date means the eighth edition could be in a three-way battle against Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One and another long-awaited blockbuster Avatar 2, which is set for Christmas 2017 but could be further delayed.
Despite the bad news regarding the release date, Star Wars fans have the option of comforting themselves with Rogue One, the Star Wars spinoff which is due out in December this year. The film, starring Felicity Jones, is set in the Star Wars universe but with new characters.
The late schedule will give the director Rian Johnson, the director of Looper and two acclaimed episodes of Breaking Bad, more time to work on the film.
All the other Star Wars movies, except The Force Awakens, were released in May. Star Wars was released May 25, 1977, The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 17, 1980, Return of the Jedi was May 25, 1883, The Phantom Menace was May 19, 1999, Attack of the Clones was May 16, 2002, and Revenge of the Sith was May 19, 2005.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the only Star Wars movie to be released in the winter, and it took advantage of the lack of competition. The eighth Star Wars film was set to join its summer brothers, but due to the delay, it will also be released in winter. The competition will be far from easy this time. With Avatar 2 ready to arm wrestle Star Wars at the box office, next Christmas is surely going to be fun.
[Photo by Lucasfilms]
