Star Wars: Episode VII will be released on Dec. 18, 2015, confirming speculation on the web that the film will be released during the holiday season rather than the summer.
“We're very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture," Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios said in a statement.
This will be the first Star Wars film released during the holidays. All six previous films, dating back to the first in 1977, have been released in May, just at the start of the summer blockbuster season.
However, the move to the holidays will likely give director J.J. Abrams, co-writer Lawrence Kasdan and their team more time to work on the film while still making Disney’s strict time frame. The studio has been saying since it bought Lucasfilm in October 2012 that Episode VII will be out in 2015 and it has been sticking to it.
The other main reason for the holiday date may be that Disney already has a big summer blockbuster for 2015 - The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is slated for May 1, 2015. It will also keep Episode VII from getting crowded out by other anticipated sequels, like Fox’s Independence Day 2 and Universal’s Jurassic World.
Today’s announcement again mentioned nothing about casting. John Williams is scoring the film and Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams and Bryan Burk are producing. Production is now set to start in spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios in the U.K.
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