Last night Disney peppered the movie world with three big Star Wars announcements; Godzilla director Gareth Edwards will helm the first planned standalone Star Wars film, it will be titled Rogue One, and it’s due to be released on December 16th 2016; Felicity Jones (The Theory Of Everything) is the first confirmed star for Rogue One; and Star Wars Episode VIII is due to be both written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), and is due to be released on May 26th 2017.
While very little is currently known about Rogue One (you can read the most detailed filled part of the official press release below), odds are it’ll revolve around Rogue Squadron, an elite Rebel Alliance starfighter squadron which was founded by Luke Skywalker and played a key role in a number of engagements during the Galactic Civil War.
From Disney’s press release:
“The idea for the story of Rogue One came from John Knoll, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic. He will executive produce along with Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knight Rises, Fast & Furious 6) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War Of The Worlds). Kathleen Kennedy and Tony To (Band Of Brothers, The Pacific) are on board to produce and John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce. The film starts shooting this summer in London.”
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be released on December 18th, in both the US and UK.
