Star Wars Reveals Titles, Crew for Two New Movies!

StarWars.com released a ton of new details from a Lucasfilm shareholder meeting, and a lot of it is good! The first piece is a confirmation of something we reported way back when, that Rian Johnson will be writing and directing Episode VIII. This is fantastic news - Johnson's three films have ranged from good (Brothers Bloom) to great (Looper, Brick), and his episodes of Breaking Bad were some of the best in that show's run. We can't wait to see what he does with Star Wars.

The other piece of news concerns the title for Felicity Jones starring Star Wars standalone, directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (About a Boy, Cinderella). The film is entitled "Rogue One," and was developed based on an idea that John Knoll, Chief Creative Officer at ILM, had. If that name doesn't excite you, let me explain why it should: Rogue One is the callsign for the leader of Rogue Squadron, the X-wing pilots that heroically led the charge for the Rebel Alliance and were immortalized in the series of X-wing: Rogue Squadron books. The books are no longer canon, but a film all about X-wing fighters could be amazing. And while she's not confirmed to be playing Rogue One, a film about a female leader of a group of X-wing pilots would be friggin' gold.

Also announced were the release dates for the films:

Star Wars: Rogue One: December 16 2016
Star Wars VIII: May 26 2017

Felicity Jones Confirmed for Star Wars Standalone

Whoops, our bad.

After a few days of most of the internet reporting that Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany had been booked for the role, it turns out we were all completely wrong, as Variety is now reporting that Felicity Jones (most recently from The Theory of Everything) has claimed the lead role in Gareth Edwards' Star Wars standalone film.

Original speculation had said that this film would be following a young Han Solo or Boba Fett, but with the hunt for a female lead, the rumor mongers are now saying that this film will be about a young Princess Leia. That would be cool, but honestly I'd prefer it if the films just followed a brand new set of characters.

We'll see for sure when the film releases on December 16, 2016.