If you were hoping for a new Star Wars movie in 2019, you’re in luck. Following the Walt Disney Company’s high-profile acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its intellectual properties, audiences and industry watchdogs alike have been wondering what the nigh-unstoppable studio’s next moves would be.
With multiple freshly-acquired licenses such as the X-Men under its belt, Disney is more determined than ever to conquer the global box office. To do this, the House of Mouse will release a tentpole film every holiday season, with Star Wars taking a lion’s share of the December releases from now until 2027.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Holiday Special
While it may be easy to mock Disney’s decision to release a Star Wars movie every December because of the space opera’s infamous crossover with the holidays, the numbers paint a different story. Disney released two of the three installments in its new Star Wars trilogy during the holidays, and in doing so debunked a long-standing Hollywood belief.
The old mindset was that tentpole features opening on a holiday weekend only earned $100 million at best, but Star Wars easily blew past this figure. Cases in point: The Force Awakens earned $247.9 million and The Last Jedi pulled in $220 million during their opening weekends. Each movie went on to earn billions of dollars in total profits.
With this consistent success, it only makes sense for Disney to basically claim ownership of December. Recently, the studio unveiled its holiday roadmap, confirming a new galactic adventure to be released every other year.
Upcoming Star Wars Movie List.
- December 2019 — Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- December 2020 — Cruella
- December 2021 — Avatar 2
- December 2022 — Untitled Star Wars film
- December 2023 — Avatar 3
- December 2024 — Untitled Star Wars film
- December 2025 — Avatar 4
- December 2026 — Untitled Star Wars film
- December 2027 — Avatar 5
In between each new Star Wars installment is Disney’s next villain-centric live-action feature based on the dog-killing villain from 101 Dalmatians and the rest of James Cameron’s epic Avatar saga – now a Disney property following the Disney-Fox merger.
The Limitless Galaxy
Star Wars is one of the most popular and profitable franchises known to man, and Disney isn’t going to limit its presence to the big screen.
Besides a new Star Wars movie in 2019, the battle between the galactic forces of good and evil will continue in series like The Mandalorian and the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the streaming service Disney Plus. A show centered on Cassian Andor from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and a currently untitled Star Wars project from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are also in the works, alongside other rumored projects like a supposed Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
While the qualities and release dates of these shows are still up in the air, what’s guaranteed is that long-time fans and newcomers alike won’t be running out of Rebel-Empire conflicts for the foreseeable future.