"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" has just been released. While others are still on cloud nine after watching the movie, other avid fans are already looking ahead to what "Star Wars Episode 9" may offer.
According to Hollywood Life, principal photography for "Star Wars Episode 9" will start in early 2018, and it will be followed closely by filming, which is expected to end sometime around November or December 2018. After that, "Star Wars Episode 9" will go into post-production for another 7-8 months which means that fans will be waiting for two years to see Episode 9. The movie is expected to hit theaters on Dec. 20, 2019, provided that no delays will happen.
With regards to the plot, "Star Wars Episode 9" was rumored to center on Carrie Fisher's character "Leia." Unfortunately, Fisher died shortly after they finished filming for "The Last Jedi." Fisher died at the age of 60 from cardiac arrest.
"The minute she finished [shooting The Last Jedi], she grabbed me and said, 'I'd better be at the forefront of 9," director for "The Last Jedi" Rian Johnson told Vanity Fair. "Because Harrison [Ford] was front and center on [The Force Awakens], and Mark [Hamill] is front and center on [The Last Jedi]. She thought [Episode 9] would be her movie," added Johnson. "And it would have been."
With Fisher's death, it was rumored that the production team of "Star Wars Episode 9" will create a computer-generated imagery or "CGI" reconstruction technology of Fisher's image, similar to what the production team of the "Star Wars" standalone film "Rogue One" did to Peter Cushing's character Grand Moff Tarkin. Cushing passed away in 1994.
However, the rumor quickly died after Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said that Fisher will not be in the movie. "The Last Jedi" has been Carrie Fisher's last appearance on the "Star Wars" series. Additionally, "The Force Awakens" director JJ Abrams will be directing "Star Wars Episode 9." "Jurassic World" director Colin Trevorrow was initially chosen to direct Episode 9, but he departed due to creative differences.
"I had no intention of going back," said Abrams on his interview with Rolling Stone. "But when the opportunity presented itself to finish a story that we had begun with these new characters, to tell the last chapter of their story, it felt like there was a chance to do it in a way where we could go beyond, and do better than we did in [The Force Awakens]."
"Star Wars Episode 9" is expected to hit the theaters on Dec. 20, 2019.
