Star Wars Episode 8 Confirms Release Date & Director

published 12 March 2015

Huge news, Star Wars fans: Episode VIII now has a director and a release date.

Hang on. Before you hit the words ‘J.J. Abrams’, ‘Force Awakens’ and ‘sometime before Christmas’ into your keyboard, rolling your eyes as you do so, take a look at the title once more.

That’s right, this is for the next episode, which we can now reveal is to be directed by Looper filmmaker Rian Johnson and released May 26, 2017. If you’re geeky enough you’ll doubtlessly know this release date will be forty years and a day since 1977’s original A New Hope. No pressure there then.

In the meantime, there's also been news about one of the standalone spin-off films. It’s going to be called Rogue One, will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and will star The Theory of Everything’s Felicity Jones, set for a release Christmas 2016.

So there we have it - clear your diary on May 26, 2017 and get the popcorn in. Well, when you buy the diary, that is.

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.