“Star Wars” fans, your patience will be tested again.
Disney and Lucasfilm are starting a new waiting game as they’ve recently announced that the release of “Star Wars: Episode VII” has been pushed back by 7 months.
The 8th “Star Wars” film was originally scheduled for release on 26th May 2017. However, due to the delay, it is set to be released on 15th December 2017, a week before James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel debuts on theatres.
In a press statement, Disney and Lucasfilm said:
“The move follows the extraordinary success of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, which was the first Star Wars movie to premiere outside the traditional summer blockbuster window and smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic 2nd and 3rd weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over USD861.3 million and the 3rd biggest global release ever with USD1.886.7 billion.”
The reason behind the postponement is unclear, but according to the Meet the Movie Press podcast, the film is currently undergoing some significant rewrites.
Writer/director Rian Johnson wrote the first screenplay before Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hit theatres. He originally wanted to introduce new protagonists and a few actresses including Bel Powley and Gina Rodriguez were eyed to play a pivotal role.
However, the Meet the Movie Press podcast revealed that “an Asian actress got the role Bel and Gina were up for”. It was also revealed that Johnson is doing a rewrite to “make these roles smaller”. This came as no surprise to us because Lucasfilm would want the sequel to focus more on the characters that have already been established in the franchise, especially the ones introduced in Abrams’ film.
“Star Wars: Episode VIII” is currently in preproduction and will begin principal photography in London next month. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce while Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski will serve as executive producers.
Sources: StarWars.com, /FILM.
