'Star Wars: Episode 9' Officially Has A Release Date

Prepare to get ridiculously excited about the upcoming adventures of a galaxy far, far away, because the release date for Star Wars: Episode IX has been announced, and you're definitely going to want to mark it on your calendar immediately. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is set to premiere on May 24, 2019. With Star Wars: The Last Jedi (the eighth installment) being released on Dec. 15 this year, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens having also enjoyed a December release date in 2015, Episode IX is the first of the trio to land a spring release.

Which makes me wonder just what on Earth we're going to do with ourselves in December 2019, if not enjoying our new tradition of going to see the new Star Wars movie over and over again. The upside, though, is that we at least get to enjoy the movie, which is still yet to be given an official title, a little earlier than was anticipated. Which is definitely something worth getting super excited about.

As you might expect from a movie that isn't due for release for another two years, there aren't currently many details for fans to chew on concerning what they might be able to expect from the movie. One thing we do know for certain, however, is that Carrie Fisher won't be appearing in Star Wars: Episode IX, despite previous reports suggesting that Leia would still make an appearance in the movie.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy assured fans that Fisher would not appear in Episode IX during an interview with ABC News, and stated, "Sadly, Carrie will not be in nine, but we will see a lot of Carrie in eight." Carrie's brother, Todd Fisher, had previously suggested to the New York Daily News that himself and Billie Lourd had given Disney and LucasFilm permission to use recent footage of the late actor.

Kennedy cleared up the speculation, however, by stating that Todd may have been mistaken, and explained,

"He was probably confused because we finished everything in [Episode VIII]. [Fisher's] absolutely phenomenal in the movie and we were so happy to complete shooting in the summer. Unfortunately [Fisher] passed away, so by the time we were well underway with Episode IX, in our thoughts we had not written the script yet but we regrouped, we started over in January."

While the absence of both Carrie Fisher, and Leia, will undoubtedly be felt by fans during Star Wars: Episode IX, we at least all have Star Wars: The Last Jedi to look forward to, in paying our final respects to the late great actor.