It wasn’t too long ago that Lucasfilm was looking for a Star Wars: Episode IX director to replace the departed Colin Trevorrow.

Now that we know J.J. Abrams will return to finish the trilogy he started with The Force Awakens, we are getting a few more details about the highly anticipated film. The film, which was originally slated for a May 2019 release, has now been pushed back all the way to December 2019. More on the story below.

Lucasfilm confirmed the new release date via its official Twitter Account following the news of Abrams’ hiring. Star Wars: Episode IX will now hit theaters on December 20, 2019:

As some of you may recall, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also released in December. While it was a step away from the traditional May releases, Episode IX makes it the first time that an entire Star Wars trilogy has been released in December. And so far, the December release dates have been working quite well for them. Both The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story were box office hits. The former grossing $936 million domestically, and $2 billion worldwide; while the latter earned $523 million domestically, and $1 billion worldwide. The untitled Han Solo spinoff is a return to release form for Lucasfilm, as it is the only new Star Wars film to be released in May.

No start date has been announced as of yet. But it seems clear that they will start with a fresh script considering that Abrams and Chris Terrio will write. It also helps (albeit a little) that Abrams served as an executive producer on Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The two collaborated with each other as director Rian Johnson was involved early on to get a sense of where Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan were taking the film. In fact, Johnson had asked Abrams to alter the ending of The Force Awakens.

Basically, Abrams already had an idea of how this Star Wars trilogy’s story should be told. So there is no sense is trying to polish a story that isn’t his. It’s unclear if Abrams and Terrio will use any of Trevorrow and Derek Connolly‘s draft. Based on the creative disagreements, I wouldn’t put any money on it. In fact, Abrams had been in a very similar situation, when he and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy didn’t agree with Michael Arndt’s script for The Force Awakens.

We’ll just have to wait and hear from Abrams himself to see where Star Wars goes from here.

[Source: Star Wars Twitter]