‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ gets May 2019 release date: Disney

April 26, 2017 - 9:58 AM
4092
Daisy Ridley in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi.'

The final film in the new “Star Wars” trilogy, “Star Wars: Episode IX,” will be released in May 2019, movie studio Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday.

The May 24 release date marked a shift in strategy for Disney, whose two previous new entries in the sci-fi adventure have all been set for release in mid-December, during the winter holidays.

Disney gave no details on “Star Wars: Episode IX,” about which little is known except that it will be directed by Colin Trevorrow.

“Episode IX” completes the trilogy that began after Disney bought George Lucas’s Lucasfilm in a $4 billion deal in 2012. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which reunited the original cast of the first 1977 film, was released in December 2015, and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is due to open worldwide on Dec. 15, 2017.

Disney on Tuesday also announced that another of its blockbuster franchise revivals, a new Indiana Jones movie starring Harrison Ford, had been pushed back by a year to July 2020.

The studio gave no explanation for the change in the release date for the as-yet untitled film that had been originally scheduled for July 2019.