Did Disney Just Announce the New Star Wars Trilogy?

With the long-awaited acquisition of Fox now complete, The Walt Disney Company is shuffling release dates and plans to make room for the assets of another complete studio. The incredible new slate was released, moving dates for some previously announced projects and making room for some new ones — including three previously unannounced new Star Wars projects from Lucasfilm.

Like The Rise of Skywalker this December, the new Star Wars films will return to the holiday release schedule, each set for a pre-Christmas release beginning in 2022.

Dec. 16, 2022 — Untitled Star Wars
Dec. 20, 2024 — Untitled Star Wars
Dec. 18, 2026 — Untitled Star Wars

With the two-year break between films, we’re certainly back to following the trilogy pattern established with The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Provided there are no additional yet-to-be-announced films in the pipeline, a three-year break between Skywalker and whatever comes next backs up Disney CEO Robert Iger’s statements to Bloomberg last month, in which he says, “There are movies in development, but we have not announced them. We will take a pause, some time, and reset because the Skywalker saga comes to an end with this ninth movie. There will be other Stars Wars movies, but there will be a bit of a hiatus.”

Since last year’s May release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the status of the standalone films has been in question, especially with the focus on upcoming television projects for Disney+, which already has The Mandalorian slated for November and a Rogue One prequel starring Diego Luna in development.

So now speculation can begin.

Will we be seeing the trilogy that Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has been working on, or will it be the new “series” of films from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have been working on? Or will this be a collaborative effort? Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy has gone on record stating that Benioff and Weiss are “working very closely” with Johnson.

Time to send out the Bothan spies to gather information.

Photo: Lucasfilm

About the author

James Zahn

James Zahn, AKA The Rock Father, is Editor-in-Chief of The Toy Book, a Senior Editor at The Toy Insider and The Pop Insider, and Editor of The Toy Report, The Toy Book‘s weekly industry newsletter. As a pop culture and toy industry expert, Zahn has appeared as a panelist and guest at events including Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) Wizard World Chicago, and the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy. Zahn has more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment, retail, and publishing industries, and is frequently called upon to offer expert commentary for publications such as Forbes, Marketwatch, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, and more. James has appeared on History Channel’s Modern Marvels, was interviewed by Larry King and Anderson Cooper, and has been seen on Yahoo! Finance, CNN, CNBC, FOX Business, NBC, ABC, CBS, WGN, The CW, and more. Zahn joined the Adventure Media & Events family in 2016, initially serving as a member of the Parent Advisory Board after penning articles for the Netflix Stream Team, Fandango Family, PBS KIDS, Sprout Parents (now Universal Kids), PopSugar, and Chicago Parent. He eventually joined the company full time as a Senior Editor and moved up the ranks to Deputy Editor and Editor-in-Chief.