‘Star Wars 8’ Gets 2017 Release Date, Spinoff ‘Rogue One’

There are new Star Wars movies coming. Bob Iger just announced two more projects during Disney’s shareholder meeting today: Star Wars 8 will bow May 26, 2017 and be written and directed by Looper‘s Rian Johnson. And the first of the stand-alone spinoff movies based on Star Wars, Star Wars: Rogue One, begins shooting this summer with Felicity Jones officially starring.

Rogue One‘s storyline is by Industrial Light + Magic’s John Knoll and is one of the stand-alone spinoffs Disney and Lucasfilm have indicated will be part of the expanded Star Wars universe. Gareth Edwards is already aboard to direct, and Chris Weitz is handling the rewrite of Gary Whitta’s original script. A December 16, 2016 release date has been set aside.

Jones, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking’s wife in The Theory Of Everything, was first tipped to be the frontrunner for the lead role in this last month.

Today’s news means there will be three Star Wars films between now and 2017. JJ Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is due out this December 18 and is the first pic in the franchise since George Lucas’ Revenge Of The Sith in 2005.

Back in June, Deadline told you first that Johnson was aboard to write and direct Star Wars VIII and Star Wars IX.