Episode VIII & Han Solo Directors To Appear At SWCE

The directors of Star Wars: Episode VIII and the Han Solo spinoff movie, respectively, will appear at Star Wars Celebration Europe.

This week on The Star Wars Show, it was announced Rian Johnson of Episode VIII and Chris Miller and Phillip Lord of the upcoming Han Solo spinoff movie will appear in the Future Filmmakers panel at Star Wars Celebration Europe next month. Story group member and all-around Star Wars trivia master Pablo Hidalgo will host the panel, which will include Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and senior vice president of story development at LFL. Future Filmmakers will take a look at where the film portion of the franchise is headed.

The announcement of the three directors appearing in the same panel sparked speculation we will get a preview of some sort of both Episode VIII and the Han Solo movie, which according to The Star Wars Show host Andi Gutierrez is as yet untitled. Meaning, it’s probably not going to be called Han Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is interesting because I always assumed the latter was its title. Perhaps we’ll be surprised with the official name of the film on July 17th, a Sunday and the last day of SWCE.

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It’s surprising Lucasfilm wants to give any sort of sneak preview of the Han Solo film this early in the game. Currently, the movie is not expected to hit theaters until May 25th, 2018, especially since that date may not be set in stone (Disney already changed the release date of Episode VIII from May 2017 to December 15th, 2017). Given its distance from us, I think the most we can hope to receive with regard to news of the Han Solo movie is a title, and maybe a picture of Alden Ehrenreich in his Solo costume.

Rian Johnson, however, may have more to offer about his film than Phillip and Lord. Episode VIII is already well on its way to wrapping up filming in London, and rumor has it Lucasfilm already has some footage floating around (via Furious Fanboys). If nothing else, we may get some screenshots from production and/or a behind the scenes video, like the one we got for The Force Awakens at San Diego Comic Con last year.

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But, lest we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s not forget Rogue One is getting its own panel, hosted by Kennedy and director Gareth Edwards. In case you didn’t realize it, Star Wars Celebration Europe is going to be an exciting event any Star Wars fan won’t want to miss. Be sure to check Dork Side July 15th-17th when the event is taking place in London to stay up to date on all the news coming forthwith.