This Will Be A Day Long Remembered: Star Wars Episode VII Gets A Release Date

Well kids, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that we finally have a hard and fast release date for Star Wars: Episode VII. The bad news is that it is about six months later than everybody originally anticipated, meaning that the guy who is inevitably already first in line at Grauman’s Chinese Theater will, by release time, only smell like an authentic Star Wars character if you take on faith that Boba Fett is really 150 pounds of rotting potted meat stuffed into a cardboard facsimile of Mandalorian armor.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Disney has announced, via StarWars.com, that they will be releasing the J. J. Abrams-directed, Abrams and Lawrence Kasden-scripted (You know, Lawrence Kasden. The guy who did the final draft of The Empire Strikes Back? The writer most fondly known these days as “Not George Lucas”?) new movie on December 18th, 2015.

Which means that there is gonna be one hell of a case of Skywalking Pneumonia going around starting Wednesdayish, December 16th 2015.

Here’s some of the press release from DIsney:

With pre-production in full-swing, a confirmed release date of December 18, 2015, has been set for Lucasfilm’s highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII.

“We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture,” said Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.

Star Wars: Episode VII will be directed by J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek) and is being scripted by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, with Tommy Harper (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Jack Ryan, Star Trek Into Darkness) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds) serving as executive producers. John Williams is returning to score Star Wars: Episode VII.

Shooting is scheduled to begin spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios.

Personally, I don’t mind extra six or seven month delay, provided it’s for the right reasons. If the plan is to give extra time for fight choreographers to train actors how to do a 45 minute lightsaber duel, they can keep the extra months. After all, I saw the best lightsaber duel of my life in 1999 about ten minutes before walking into daylight, lighting a cigarette and telling Crisis On Infinite Midlives contributor Trebuchet, “Well, that was a waste of a sick day.”

But if they’re gonna use that time to put together one kick-ass script, well, that’s gonna be well worth the wait. After all, the problem with the prequels was that the stories were a mess, and I am cool with taking as long as they need to give us a really good Star Wars story again. Hell, crank out a second draft! It’ll be like the old days! Since I don’t think anyone’s written a second draft of a Star Wars script since 1982!