fans: some dates for your iPhone calendar. has been set for a May 26, 2017 release date. The eighth film in the franchise will launch exactly 40 years after George Lucas first introduced the world to a galaxy far, far away. Rian Johnson, director of Looper and Brick, will write and direct the film. But fans will not have to wait so long for a slice of Sith vs Jedi action. A Star Wars spinoff film, Rogue One, will star Felicity Jones and be released December 16, 2016.
Disney made the announcements in San Francisco yesterday to its shareholders. The House of Mouse, which bought the Star Wars franchise from Lucasfilms for $4bn in 2012, did not unveil any further details of a second spinoff film to be directed by Gareth Edwards. Other things we don’t know include: if the spinoffs will weave their way into the next and seventh film of the franchise. The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams, is in cinemas from December 18, 2015.
You can, of course, whet your appetite for all that by heading to one of Secret Cinema’s interactive screenings of The Empire Strikes Back in London this summer, announced on Wednesday. As if all that weren’t enough, Disney is also planning Millennium Falcon-style attractions at its theme parks. So if you’re a fan, you best start planning your life around Star Wars launches from here to eternity.