The news has emerged that the next Star Wars film, set for worldwide release on December 15th, will be called The Last Jedi.
Director Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick) has revealed that the film will centre on Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), telling USA Today that the film promises to “be a blast and to be funny and to be a ride the way The Force Awakens and the original Star Wars movies were.”
As for the plot details, not much is known beyond Luke Skywalker taking the central role in the film, although rumours started circling online earlier this month suggesting that Episode VIII would get its own cuddly creatures, similar to the audience splitting Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. The suggestion is that *SPOILER WARNING* Luke has been sharing his time on Aach-To, which saw Kerry’s Skellig Michael double up as the alien world, with a “bird mixed with a Gremlin.”
It's official. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is the next chapter of the Skywalker saga. This December. #TheLastJedi https://t.co/ySkVwQcMTP pic.twitter.com/eHrPgbsRJq
— Star Wars (@starwars) January 23, 2017
The most recent Star Wars film was released in December, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story the first standalone adventure in the film's cinematic canon. Just last week it became the fourth film released in 2016 to cross the billion-dollar box office mark, still showing in many territories worldwide after becoming the top grossing film of the year.
