There are few franchises that truly inspire heavy fandom the way that Star Wars does. Since A New Hope first flew into theaters, American culture has been absolutely enamored with the galaxy far, far away, and entire generations have united together to watch the space opera and all of the colorful characters which it contains. As such, each new addition to the Star Wars canon is a cultural event, with droves of loyal viewers heading to the movies and attempting (sometimes in vain) to avoid spoilers. And since The Force Awakens was released in December, fans have been eagerly anticipating the next chapter of the main story, the still untitled Episode VIII. Luckily, we just got a little more information regarding the status of the next entry into the galaxy from none other than Luke Skywalker himself.
Mark Hamill has been pretty chatty regarding Episode VIII, most likely because he's actually in this movie for more than two minutes and actually has lines. Hamill most recently took to twitter to reveal when the cast and crew will be wrapping production for the untitled entry into the main canon, and it's real soon. Check it out.
There you go, you scruffy looking nerf herders. Production wraps on the next entry into the saga that is Star Wars in less than a month. So hopefully we'll be able to see some footage or teasers sooner rather than later.
Production wrapping for Episode VIII so soon is seems both exciting and hopeful regarding the overall quality of the mysterious sequel. Since we are not expecting the movie to hit theaters for another year and a half, this gives the producers, editors, and visual effects coordinators plenty of time to really make the film outstanding. The Force Awakens was gorgeous and felt like a chapter from the original trilogy, so Episode VIII will presumably attempt to do the same.
Rather than having to rush to quickly produce a movie for this December, the standalone film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released this year. The spinoff will successfully continue the hype and excitement for Star Wars fans, while also allowing post-production for Episode VIII to occur properly. Additionally, Rogue One will allow fans of the original trilogy (aka everyone) to go back in time a bit, and be re-introduced to the original characters that made the property so exciting.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will fly into theaters on December 16h, 2016.
