Earlier today it was announced that J.J. Abrams is set to return to the galaxy far, far away to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, and now comes word that – just as he did with Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Abrams’ has had the release date of the 2019 sequel pushed back from May to December.

The news probably shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise in all honesty; last month, Jack Thorne (Skins) was brought in to work on Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s script, and given that Trevorrow has since been removed from the project entirely, it is probably safe to assume the script is far from being up to scratch.

As part of today’s announcement, it was revealed that Abrams will be writing Episode IX with Chris Terrio (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). As yet, there’s no word as to whether Abrams and Terrio will be using any of the existing script, or whether the planned January 2018 production start date has been pushed back (the smart money would say yes).

Episode IX will now open on December 20th 2019, putting it in competition with Universal’s Wicked and Sony’s Masters of the Universe, both of which are slated to open on Christmas Day, and must surely now be considering their slots.