Disney confirms release dates for three new Star Wars films

Disney has set release dates for three more Star Wars films, the studio has confirmed.

The first of the as-yet-untitled movies will be released on December 16, 2022, with further instalments following on December 20, 2024 and December 18, 2026.

The new films will follow Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which will land in cinemas on December 19 and will bring the nine episode Skywalker saga to a conclusion.

It is yet to be confirmed whether the three new features will form part of another trilogy, or whether they will be standalone instalments similar to anthology films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

“With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker bringing the original Skywalker Saga to its conclusion, three new as-yet-untitled Star Wars films will release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2022,” a statement from Disney confirmed.

Further details are yet to be confirmed, though it was previously established that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is working on a movie trilogy set in “a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.”

Game of Thrones writers and executive producers David Benioff and DB Weiss are also working with Lucasfilm to develop new movies.

Studio bosses also announced release dates for James Cameron’s delayed Avatar sequels, with the release date for Avatar 2 pushed back from December 18, 2020 to December 17, 2021.

Avatar 3 will then be released on December 22, 2023, with the fourth and fifth films following on December 19, 2025 and December 17, 2027.

“Four forthcoming Avatar films, expanding the vibrant world of Pandora, will release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2021,” Disney said in the same announcement.

“With a strong summer already in place, we are eager to carry that momentum forward over the coming years thanks to a creative wellspring of bold and imaginative stories coming from our world-class studios – including several new chapters of two revered franchises, Avatar and Star Wars,” Disney’s Cathleen Taff said.