'Star Wars: Episode VIII' Release Date Pushed to Dec. 2017! Get the Details Here

• comments
• 
• 

"Star Wars: Episode VIII" will be delayed. Disney and Lucasfilm announced that the movie will be in theaters Dec. 15, 2017 instead of May 26, 2017 in a press statement Wednesday.

BBC shared that Disney was not specific about the reasons for the delay but it has long been speculated that the script to the follow up of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is undergoing a rewrite.

IGN reported the story changes could involve expanding the roles of Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn) and Oscar Isaac (Poe), while cutting down the exposures of new characters whose actors have yet to be revealed. There are also speculations Tatiana Maslany, Gina Rodriguez, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Bel Powley could be up for these parts.

Entertainment Weekly reported that script changes are not surprising for something as big as "Star Wars. However, Lucasfilm may have intended to change the date to follow the dominance of "The Force Awakens" in at the box office. The latter was released in theaters last December 2015 and gained much success. The movie now trails at the third spot in the box office, behind the two highest-grossing films of all time - "Avatar" and "Titanic."

USA Today reported that the sequel to "Avatar" is expected to hit theaters in Dec. 25, 2017, which means it will be competing with "Star Wars: Episode VIII" at the box office for the holiday season. However, the move will not affect the release of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," a stand-alone film within the "Star Wars" universe that touches on different characters apart from the major story. It will go ahead as planned and will be seen in theaters on Dec. 16, 2016.

Filming will still proceed as scheduled next month at the Pinewood Studios in London despite pushing back the release of "Episode VIII." "We're just starting work on 'Star Wars VIII,' the next film, so I'm back to keeping secrets again," Boyega told Vogue when asked about returning to work on the set. "It's great. Much darker, but we're very excited," the actor teased.

Meanwhile, Independent claimed that a casting call for "Episode VIII" revealed that the movie's "secret working title" is called "Space Bear." The news outlet further reported that it has been the production's practice to send scripts to the cast and crew under a working title, as in the case of "The Force Awakens," which was referred to as "Foodles Productions Ltd."