Star Wars: Episode VIII Pushed Back to December 2017

This sounds like it could be good news. Disney can take all the time they want getting Star Wars Episode VIII ready if it means a better film.

This means that the movie’s release date has shifted from May 26, 2017 to December 15, 2017. There’s a couple reasons this could be happening. It could be about changes to the script or possibly due to some of the production delays that they’ve been dealing with. It could also be something as simple as greed. Star Wars The Force Awakens made December it’s bitch. Why not try to recapture the box office magic? There’s less competition and it’s a bigger headline when you do well in a traditionally quite box office month.

Along with the shift for Star Wars, the release is also getting pushed up for the next installment (why are they still doing these) of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

This morning, The Walt Disney Studios announced new release dates for upcoming films from two of its major franchises.

Star Wars: Episode VIII, originally scheduled for release on May 26, 2017, will now debut on December 15, 2017. The move follows the extraordinary success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was the first Star Wars movie to premiere in December. In the popular holiday moviegoing corridor, it smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic second and third weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over $861M and the third biggest global release ever with $1.887B.

Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Star Wars: Episode VIII is currently in pre-production and will begin principal photography in London next month. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce and J.J. Abrams, Tom Karnowski, and Jason McGatlin will executive produce. Stay tuned to StarWars.com for exciting updates in the coming weeks.

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. The blockbuster franchise’s previous installment, the $1B-grossing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, also debuted in late May.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow with Geoffrey Rush back on board as Barbossa, Orlando Bloom resurfacing as Will Turner, and a terrifying new adversary, Captain Salazar, played by Javier Bardem, in the mix. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, the film is currently in post-production.