New Star Wars Movie Release Dates Set For Post-Hiatus

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters in December, but the future of the long-running franchise on the big screen was unclear beyond that as Disney suggested they would receive somewhat of a break. We know the franchise's TV presence is expanding significantly with the launch of Disney+, but we now also know the release dates for the next three Star Wars movies, which are due in theaters over the next seven years.

As part of detailing its upcoming movie release slate--which goes out as far as 2027--Disney has confirmed that new Star Wars films will be released on December 16, 2022, December 20, 2024, and December 18, 2026. The movies will alternate with releases of James Cameron's Avatar movies--Avatar 3, 4, and 5 will arrive in December 2023, 2025, and 2027 respectively.

Further details about the next batch of Star Wars movies are currently unknown. There are two separate series in development, one from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and the other from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. It has been rumored that work on Benioff and Weiss's series is further along, with Star Wars Net recently reporting that their first movie will begin production this fall. However, this has not been officially confirmed.

In any case, it is notable that the Star Wars release schedule has slowed down. When the series relaunched in 2015 with The Force Awakens, Disney's plan was to release a movie each year. However, the commercial failure of 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story reportedly led to plans for further spin-offs to be cancelled, with Disney boss Bob Iger admitting in September 2018 that the movies so far had been released "a little too much, too fast."

More recently, Iger described how the series was going on a hiatus after the release of The Rise of Skywalker. "We have not announced any specific plans for movies thereafter," he said. "There are movies in development, but we have not announced them. We will take a pause, some time, and reset, because the Skywalker saga comes to an end with this ninth movie. There will be other Stars Wars movies, but there will be a bit of a hiatus."

In the small screen, the live-action Star Wars show The Mandalorian premieres in the fall, when the streaming platform Disney+ launches. There is also a show focusing on the Rogue One character Cassian Andor in development for the service.

Disney has also announced release dates for several new Marvel movies, as well as a new slot for the much-delayed New Mutants.