Star Wars fans have only just caught their breath after watching The Force Awakens.
But now news from a galaxy far, far away has revealed that, well, the next instalment of the movie won’t be out for quite a while … far, far away.
John Boyega as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (David James/Lucasfilm)
Episode 8 was originally due to be released in summer 2017, but will not now be released until December 15 2017.
In a statement on the official website, Disney and Lucasfilm said: “The move follows the extraordinary success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was the first Star Wars movie to premiere outside the traditional summer blockbuster window and smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic second and third weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over 861.3 million US dollars and the third biggest global release ever with 1.886.7 billion US dollars.”
Fans have reacted in varying ways. Just take a look:
Concur with this, we do…
So Star Wars 8 is being pushed back from May 2017 to December 2017. I hope its for a good reason.
— Molly (@Foxtrot44) January 21, 2016
The force is strong in this one…
Star Wars VIII got pushed back cuz they need an extra six months to figure out how to explain how the hell Maz got the lightsaber
— Zan Alda (@zanalda) January 21, 2016
Cash Wars, anyone?
. @StarWars 8 pushed back 7 months. Either they need more time, or they noticed the top 3 movies of all time have all come out in December.
— Jeremy Jahns (@JeremyJahns) January 20, 2016
The master (aka director Rian Johnson) needs time if the rumours are true…
Latest rumour coming from the dark corners of STAR WARS fansites is that VIII filming has been pushed back a month for a minor rewrite…
— Jasper Cresdee-Hyde (@Jasper_CH) January 17, 2016
Blame Kylo Ren…
Kylo Ren has pushed back @starwars EP. 8 to December 2017! pic.twitter.com/wyWTktUT2p
— thestndrd (@thestndrd) January 20, 2016
Guessing the latest one didn’t please this fan…
#StarWarsEpisodeVIII is delayed because, after The Force Awakens, they realized it takes time to actually come up with an original plot.
— Joshua Isard (@JoshuaIsard) January 21, 2016
Who cares about the release date, there’s merch to be had…
#StarWarsEpisodeVIII may have been delayed but the toys are already in production. I got my hands on some prototypes pic.twitter.com/acT0DjCter
— (Eric) (@AgeOfMyself) January 21, 2016
Even Darth Vader isn’t happy….
When #StarWars episode VIII gets delayed by 6 months #StarWarsEpisodeVIII https://t.co/cLRCu27XtV
— Cinemazing Podcast (@CinemazingFilm) January 20, 2016
The date change can’t be helped. But the cat that looks like Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who has been adopted, is enough to cheer anyone up…
KYLO REN CAT Got Adopted! https://t.co/LVYFyLZPYb pic.twitter.com/xEcWPe4D9k
— Superhero Feed (@SuperheroFeed) January 20, 2016
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