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

Rian Johnson to Write and Direct Episodes 8 and 9?

Deadline is reporting that Brick and Looper director Rian Johnson is in talks, or possibly even confirmed, to take over the main Star Wars franchise after JJ Abrams' stab at Episode 7. Rian would both write an direct the last two installments of the trilogy, bringing the nine-film saga finally to a close. (Well, a close until Disney's stand-alone films by folks like Godzilla's Gareth Edwards and Chronicle's Josh Trank come out.)

It's an interesting choice, to be sure. Johnson's films are known for a dark, gritty style, that doesn't necessarily seem to fit the Star Wars mold, and he has no proven experience with the kind of giant set pieces these films will require. Still, if Brick is any indication, he knows how to have fun with a concept. I'll be interesting to see what he develops for the future of Star Wars.

UPDATE: Adorably, Rian just tweeted this video in response to the news: