Lucasfilm and Walt Disney have finally announced the release dates on which “Star Wars Episode IX” and “Indiana Jones 5” will be hitting cinemas. “Star Wars Episode IX” is set to be released on 24 May 2019 (two years after this December’s “The Last Jedi,” which comes two years after 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” with spin-offs like “Rogue One” and next year’s Han Solo movie coming in to fill in the gaps and stick to Disney’s pledge to release a new “Star Wars” Film every year), and “Indiana Jones 5” is set to be released on 10 July 2020.

‘Indiana Jones 5’ has been pushed back, previously set for 2019

The fifth “Indy” film originally had a date set for 19 July 2019, but apparently, the crew won’t be able to make that deadline, so they’ve pushed it back a year. They’re still going for a summer release because the summer season works in the favour of an exotic international jungle adventure. The first film was released in June and the other three were all released in May, so July is a bit late for an “Indiana Jones” film, but let’s not get picky about it because it’s all summer.

Meanwhile, “Episode IX’s” release in May is an oddity since every “Star Wars” film since “The Force Awakens” in the new canon has been released in December.

However, the untitled Han Solo film is also coming in May next year, so we’ll see how box office affects both main saga and spin-off films in the franchise when the dates are switched from December to May. Probably not at all, to be honest. The same big crowds will flock to a “Star Wars” film no matter what the season – the only difference is that we’ll be getting them sooner than expected, which can only be a plus.

Both of the films still have yet to be titled

Neither film yet has an official title. “Star Wars Episode VIII’s” was only revealed to be “The Last Jedi” very recently and we were kept in the dark for months about the official title of “The Force Awakens,” so we’ll probably be kept waiting until a few months before its 2019 release date before they reveal the title, so, for now, it’s being referred to only as “Star Wars Episode IX.”

“Indiana Jones 5” will most likely have a title that follows the “Indiana Jones and the...” formula, but it’s impossible to speculate on what that will be without knowing a single detail about the plot.

It was rumoured to be about the Bermuda Triangle, but the producer dismissed this as false. It does sound cool, though, right?

Harrison Ford is back in the fedora

Steven Spielberg, who’s directed every “Indiana Jones” film so far and never believed in its potential as a franchise, is taking time out of his busy schedule to helm the new movie, and geriatric Harrison Ford is taking time out of aging rapidly to put on a fedora and swing around on a whip.

George Lucas is on as executive producer. While he has no creative input into the new “Star Wars” films (Disney reportedly rejected all of his story outlines for future films in favour of stories devised by the new creative team of JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson et al), Spielberg claimed during a press event for “The BFG” that he would never make an “Indiana Jones” film unless George Lucas was involved, so luckily he hasn’t been frozen out of his most famous (and profitable) creations.

Meanwhile, “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow is onboard to call the shots on “Star Wars Episode IX,” which left him unavailable for the “Jurassic World” sequel that’s currently shooting. In other news, Universal have announced release dates for a ninth and tenth “Fast & Furious” films and 20th Century Fox announced release dates for four “Avatar” sequels.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED