'Star Wars: Episode VIII' Pushed Back to December 2017
By Pamela McClintock
The next ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie will open where the next 'Star Wars’ movie was to have launched in May 2017.
Star Wars: Episode VIII is being pushed back seven months, from Memorial Day weekend in 2017 to Dec. 15 of that year.
Instead, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will open on May 26, 2017, Star Wars’ old home. The Pirates movie was to have originally launched in theaters on July 7.
Rian Johnson is writing and directing the new Star Wars installment, which returns the cast from The Force Awakens and remains on track to begin shooting in London next month.
Disney insiders say the decision to push back the film’s release comes after the blockbuster success of The Force Awakens over the year-end holidays. They say they have now decided to give Episode VIII the same Christmas treatment.
The move will also give more breathing room to Star Wars films: Rogue One, the Gareth Edwards-helmed stand-alone “anthology” film about the heist of the original Death Star plans, comes out Dec. 16 of this year.
Force Awakens has made more than $1.8 billion worldwide, including a record $852.3 million in North America.
Watch ‘Star Wars’ stars play with their action-figure selves!
