With news of Daisy Ridley‘s Chaos Walking beginning production on August 7th, this might be confirming a rumbling we’ve been hearing for a week or so.
That Lucasfilm is yet again delaying the production of Star Wars: Episode 9, possibly until January 2018.
The studio had been playing around with starting the shoot around April-July, but due to script changes because of the sudden death of Carrie Fisher it looked like the actual date would be up-in-the-air. That’s until a wave of official casting calls looking for extras and supporting roles started making the rounds. Those listing the production start this July, although, it’s unknown if that will be happening with Daisy off making Chaos.
Normally, extras aren’t being sought a year before production.
Han Solo’s Canary Islands set is almost completed and Kathleen Kennedy recently stating that a script read was coming soon. This led us to believe the July production start was possible as other cast members hadn’t lined up summer projects (until today’s Chaos Walking news). Solo vacating the studio space would also mean it would give the crew time to construct the first wave of Episode 9 sets.
Then again, Walking is shooting in England/Scotland for a good chunk of time, around the same area as Pinewood Studios (main Star Wars production space). I doubt we’ll see Ridley wanting to shoot both films at the same time, but stranger things have happened.
This is by no means official, but the Chaos Walking dates would suggest that Daisy won’t be shooting scenes during the summer.
Episode 9 is still set for release on May 24th, 2019.