After bringing on both a new director and a new writer earlier this morning, in the form of J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, respectively, Lucasfilm has now announced yet another big change for Star Wars: Episode IX, and it comes in the form of a rather big delay. Originally set to blast into theatres on May 24th, 2019, fans will now have to wait quite a bit longer to see the final chapter in the sequel trilogy, as the studio’s moved it to December 20th of that same year.
Given all the changes that’ve been happening behind the scenes, it’s not too surprising to see that the film has been bumped several months. We wouldn’t take this as bad news, though. With a brand new director now on board and the script needing to be re-written, it makes perfect sense that Disney requires some extra time to get things right here, and doesn’t want to rush out the film just to meet its original release date.
After all, Terrio now needs to pick up the reins from Jack Throne (Wonder), who was originally appointed to fine-tune the treatment submitted by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, and he surely has a lot of work ahead of him. As to does Abrams, who’s taking over for Trevorrow, whose relationship with Lucasfilm had rapidly deteriorated over the past few months, with some claiming that the erstwhile director was “egotistical” and “unbearable.”
Whatever was going on behind the scenes, it would seem that Star Wars: Episode IX has put those troubles behind it now and with Abrams and Terrio on board, we expect things to run smoothly from here on out. Or at least, we sure hope they do. Given that this is a Star Wars film, you never really know (see: Rogue One and Han Solo).
Anyways, circling back to that new release date, seeing as a lot of fans actually prefer December over May when it comes to the franchise, this shouldn’t be too big of a deal. Sure, it sucks that we have to wait longer now to see the film, but if it means giving us a more satisfying finale to the current trilogy, then we’re more than alright with it.