Rumor: First Spin-Off Film Delayed Until 2017, Episode VIII In 2018

Disney/Lucasfilm's official release timeline for future films, as it stands now.

By: Benjamin Hart

Will we be waiting for Episode VIII and the spin-off films longer than we first thought? New rumors suggest just that. So far Disney and Lucasfilm have made it clear several times that their overall plan for future Star Wars films is to release one per year, alternating between the numbered Sequels and spin-off/character origin films. Now our friends at Jedi News are reporting that Journalists Ali Arikan has tweeted that both the release dates for the first spin-off film and Episode VIII(8) have been pushed back significantly:

Hey Lucasfilm. This might be a good day to tell the world that the first Star Wars spin-off film has been pushed back to 2017.
— Ali Arikan (@aliarikan) January 31, 2014

@MakingStarWars Episode VIII will come out in 2018, at the earliest. I have a feeling it might come out in May 2019.
— Ali Arikan (@aliarikan) January 31, 2014

This isn't the first time we've heard from Mr. Arikan. At the start of this year he also tweeted that episode VII was to begin filming on April 22nd of this year. Director J.J Abrams has since confirmed that filming is scheduled to begin in May. So he was close to the truth back then, perhaps he's close with this one as well? Check out the full conversation on Twitter, where he also claims that the he know "for a fact" that Abrams wanted a 2016 release for Episode VII.

It's become apparent that the team at Lucasfilm are in a time crunch, considering Episode VII was pushed back from it's heavily teased "Summer 2015" release to December 18, 2015. With less than two years left to produce Episode VII, other films may be put on the back burner to ensure J.J and crew can focus on making Episode VII perfect. But as always, speculation and rumors mean nothing until their confirmed by Lucasfilm, so take this report with a grain of salt and move along... Move along.