Providing this is the final change made to the scheduling of the Star Wars movies currently in production, we will now have three consecutive Decembers with Star Wars movies, including The Force Awakens in 2015 and Rogue One in 2016. Scenes with Mark Hamill at the home where Luke Skywalker lives, briefly seen in "The Force Awakens", have already been shot.
Speaking on the "Meet the Movies" podcast, Jeff Sneider from The Wrap explained that the principal photography for the film has been postponed to February this year instead of this month, to give Rian Johnson some time to complete the script rewrite.
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.
It actually makes sense that Rian Johnson and his team would decide on it given that "Episode VII" has left so many unanswered questions regarding the lineage and history of the new main characters.
The release of "Star Wars: Episode VIII" has been pushed back seven months from May 2017 to December 2017. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce and J.J. Abrams, Tom Karnowski, and Jason McGatlin will executive produce.
The delay also helps to space out the release of new Star Wars films.
"Stay tuned for exciting updates in the coming weeks", said the announcement.
What's even more interesting is that Episode VIII will now open a week before the scheduled release of James Cameron's Avatar 2.
