Last week, Disney finally unveiled the release date for the first instalment of its eagerly-anticipated Star Wars sequel trilogy, revealing that the J.J. Abrams-directed Star Wars: Episode VII is to hit cinemas on December 18th, 2015 and bringing to an end any speculation about pushing the film back to 2016 at the behest of Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy. Now, speaking to IGN, Disney’s Chief Executive Offier Bob Iger has revealed the thinking behind the release date for the hotly-anticipated sequel:
“Well, this is obviously one of the most important films that we are working on right now. And one of the things that was very important to us is that we give the creative team, J.J. Abrams and his writing team, the time to design, write and produce the film so we can optimize quality, so they can create a great film. Very, very important. At one point we considered the summer of 2015, but it felt like, particularly with some changes we made in the writing team, that that was going to create a bit of a rush and didn’t think that was optimal for obvious reasons. So Christmas 2015 became the date. Happens to be the date which Avatar, which is the No. 1 movie of all time, was released, so we like that. Hopefully that brings good luck, even though that wasn’t our film. And Christmas is a good time we think for a film like Star Wars which will have obvious interest for young people and old people alike.”
Star Wars: Episode VII is set to go into production in the spring, once Abrams and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) have finished up polishing the script.
Originally published November 11, 2013. Updated April 15, 2018.
