A lot has been said about the state of the Star Wars movies post-Solo. After the box office disappointment that is Solo: A Star Wars Story (to be fair, not entirely the film’s fault) Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and CEO of Disney Bob Iger had both mentioned that they were going to temporarily pump the brakes on big screen Star Wars releases — “going on hiatus” was the exact words they used. Fans immediately began to speculate on when exactly we’ll get to see Star Wars on the silver screen once again. It looks like we’ve finally gotten some concrete answers.
Now that they’ve completed their acquisition of Fox and the dust has settled, Walt Disney Studios has released their upcoming schedule for all their major releases over the next few years. It, of course, includes information about our favourite galaxy far far away. After the highly anticipated The Rise of Skywalker graces the big screens this December, Star Wars will go on hiatus for three years.
Per a press release by Disney, the next Star Wars film is set to hit theatres in December 2022, followed by one in 2024 and another in 2026. This is a slight (and honestly welcomed) departure from their current format of one movie per year. (Note that Disney currently owns the Avatar IP as well and those James Cameron films are set to hit the big screen in December 2021, 2023 and 2025).
Disney is yet to release an official statement as to what those films are exactly, but we can make some guesses. I believe we will be getting the first film of the heavily rumoured The Lord of the Rings-style Star Wars trilogy by the Game of Thrones writers/producers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Which to me sounds a lot like Knights of the Old Republic. Three words: Take my money.
Some speculate that Lucasfilm will alternate between the also-in-development Rian Johnson trilogy and the Benioff and Weiss trilogy, but I highly doubt it, as that would leave a four-year gap in between each movie of respective trilogies. To be frank, it’s difficult to say if there are still two completely separate trilogies in the works.
Yes, Rian Johnson has repeatedly mentioned that he can’t wait to dive into the world of Star Wars again after he’s done with his upcoming crime-thriller, Knives Out. As a huge fan of The Last Jedi, I salivate like a starving puppy just thinking about it. However, recently, Kathleen Kennedy mentioned that Johnson is working closely together with the Game of Thrones duo. What exactly that means is anybody’s guess.
On a separate note, despite the three years big screen hiatus, we will still be getting loads of Star Wars content on the small screen. The first season of The Mandalorian is set to be released together with the launch of Disney Plus in November and Disney has also announced a Cassian Andor series for the streaming platform as well. What a great time it is to be a Star Wars fan!
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