For several months now we’ve known that Gareth Edwards was attached to direct the first of Disney/Lucasfilm’s planned Star Ward spin-offs from their upcoming Episodes VII-IX, and more recently it’s been revealed that Felicity Jones was in talks for the female lead.
Now we’ve got a title, a release date and Jones has been confirmed to star. The movie will be called Star Wars: Rogue One, and it will hit cinemas December 16th, 2016.
There’s still limited info about what the movie will actually be about, although the press release says, “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.”
Although there is speculation that it will be about Rogue Squadron, which was formed shortly after the Battle Of Yavin, that hasn’t been confirmed.
It was also revealed that Star Wars Episode VIII will come out on May 26, 2017, with Rian Johnson (Looper) set to both write and direct. Incidentally that date is exactly 40 years after the first Star Wars movie came out.