"Star Wars: Episode 8" is to be released in theaters on May 26, 2017 as has been announced by Disney during a shareholder's meeting in San Francisco on the plans for the future of "Star Wars Series".
However, there were speculations on which of the cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford from the original trilogy featured in "Star Wars: Episode 7" will proceed to the next episode or if there would be any of them at all.
The only confirmation from Disney aside from the release date is that Rian Johnson will both write and direct the film. There were no details about the plot and characters made public yet on Star Wars 8.
The meeting then moved on to discuss one of the standalone films in "Star Wars" entitled "Rogue One" that will be released on December 16, 2016. It will star Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones, directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla 2014), and the story was written by Chris Weitz who also did "Cinderella". The spin-off film is based on an idea by Oscar-winning Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll, as reported by Latin Post.
It is bewildering on how "Rogue One" will be connected to "Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens" that will open on December 18, 2015 as no plot details have been publicized for both spin-offs as yet.
The other spin-off film in the works, which will be directed by Josh Trank, is still being kept secret as to date. Speculation has it that both Edwards' and Trank's movies are focusing on the early days of original characters Princess Leia and Han Solo which would mean that the films in the works are prequels of "Star Wars".
Meanwhile, seven months before the release of episode 7, fans are already anticipating the development of the story on whether the same cast members will make it through the next episode.
"Star Wars: Episode 8" will be coming out on the same date as Warner Brothers' "LEGO Batman" but the block buster movie will probably drive it away soon to another day.
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