Disney and Lucasfilm, have announced that the next film in the saga will be out on December 15 2017, it was originally scheduled for the summer of that year.

The sequel will be directed this time by Rian Johnson, known for films like Brick and Looper. According to Disney’s CEO Bob Iger, Johnson already started rolling cameras while making his own little adjustments to the Star Wars universe. However, J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: Episode VII, will only be involved as an executive producer.

The actor Greg Gunberg, life-long friend of Abrams who played the role of Temmin Wexley in the previous movie said that Abrams had read the script of the new Star Wars movie and reacted in a suprising way for him, Gunberg said that he heard Abrams saying that the script for the upcoming film was so good that he wish he had written it and that had regretted the decision of not directing it.

Geoge Lucas and J.J. Abrams

As for the cast, Disney hasn’t officially announced the new cast but we know most of the cast from The Force Awakens are reprising their roles.

In the Walt Disney Company quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Iger exposed the financial success that the Star Wars franchise earned them. More than $2 billion at the global box office, and the only domestic release to collect more than $900 million. In addition, he said it earned more than $3 billion globally in consumer products from toys, merchandise and action figures, to Star Wars themed park rides. He said that they won’t lose sight of what sold all those tickets. In an interview he also stated:

“There is no better way to propel this franchise into the future than producing quality products, filming of Star Wars: Episode VIII, the next chapter of the legendary saga, has just commenced and it will be in theaters December 2017. And production of Episode IX, a 2019 release, has also begun.”