BB-8. (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Disney)
For years, May The Fourth was celebrated without having new Star Wars movies to look forward to. That all changed in 2012, when Disney bought Lucasfilm and immediately announced plans to make new Star Wars movies. On Star Wars Day 2017, we not only have a new movie to look forward to, we have three! The studio currently has three films on the docket, including two more episodes in the Skywalker saga. Here’s a look at the complete Star Wars movie schedule, plus what you need to know about each film.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – December 15
Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up almost immediately from where 2015’s The Force Awakens left off, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) busy being trained by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Meanwhile, the General Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the Resistance try to fight the growing First Order.
Another possible subplot in the film might be Leia clashing with what’s left of the New Republic. A Making Star Wars rumor suggests that Dern is playing a well-dressed character named “Admiral Holdo.” The site describes the character as the “antithesis of Leia’s new general look of a brown dress” and suggests that she looks like a character out of the prequels.
The Last Jedi was written and directed by Rian Johnson, who made the acclaimed Looper and Brick.
Young Han Solo: A Star Wars Story – May 25, 2018
After the success of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney went ahead with plans to make a “Young Han Solo” movie, which still doesn’t have a title. Production began in February, with Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as Han and Joonas Suaotamo as Chewbacca. Donald Glover will play a young Lando Calrissian. Woody Harrleson, Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge also have roles in the film.
The movie is being directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the same team behind the 21 Jump Street movies and The LEGO Movie. Their movie will be the first Star Wars film released in the month of May since Revenge of the Sith in 2005.
Star Wars: Episode IX – May 24, 2019
Just last week, Disney confirmed that Episode IX will hit theaters on May 24, 2017. It will be the first part of the sequel trilogy to open in that month.
The film will be directed by Jurassic World‘s Colin Treverrow, who is writing with his frequent collaborator, Derek Connolly. The two will have to figure out how to deal with Carrie Fisher’s tragic death in December 2016.
While Disney originally announced that Johnson would be writing a treatment for IX, the director told fans on Twitter that he’s not involved with the movie at all.
Surprisingly, Disney hasn’t scheduled a movie for 2020. For a long time, there were rumors of another stand-alone film that would feature Boba Fett, but that never came to pass. Another idea floating around has been an Obi-Wan Kenobi film starring Ewan McGregor. None of these ideas have been confirmed. Disney might be holding back for the D23 convention in July.
Rebels Season 4 – Fall 2017
Of course, there are more Star Wars adventures than just those in the movies. Star Wars Rebels will return for a fourth season on Disney XD in Fall 2017. During Star Wars Celebration in April, producer David Filoni confirmed that this will be the last season of the show.
During Celebration, Filoni squashed the idea of featuring Rogue One‘s Scarif battle as the finale for Rebels.
““I don’t think that would be right. It would be to hinge this series end on a battle we’ve already seen the outcome of in a feature film,” Filoni said at the convention. “It would be a little bit repetitious, anticlimactic. I think as an initial impulse it sounds great. But the more you think about it, you go hmmmm I don’t know, it would kind of taper your expectations and the tension would be cut quite a bit. I like our ending. And I love that battle. I think it would be neat to see that battle one day from the Ghost’s perspective because we know the Ghost is there, but we don’t know who is in the Ghost. So that’s kind of a good question that needs to be answered.”
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May The Fourth 2017: The Complete Star Wars Movie Schedule Through 2020