The rumors surrounding ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ are starting to compete with those surrounding the iPhone 7, but in this case some details have been publicly verified.

The film’s director, Rian Johnson, confirmed that the movie will start at the exact point where ‘The Force Awakens’ left off, calling it “a break from tradition.” He also said that the new movie will focus on characters, understanding them and challenging them. Think that’s a description of any movie ever made? Yea, we kind of agree, but we guess we’ll have to do the best we can with the information we’ve got.

Filming of the much talked-of movie officially ended on July 10. However, the release date is more than a year from now: December 15, 2017. This means a long wait for eager fans who are already itching to follow the so-called new trilogy, but we have no doubt that the production will keep leaking details from time to time, just to keep the flames going.

In fact, we now have some details about the movie that will follow Episode VIII – not the last of the trilogy, but the second anthology film – the young Han Solo spin-off, which is scheduled to be released on May 25^th 2018 (confused? Take a look at our post about the 6 Star Wars movies Disney is planning).

For starters, we now know who the young Han Solo is going to be (drums please)… it’s Alden Ehrenreich. The directors of this movie will be Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The directors said they looked at more than 3000 people, looking for the perfect cast for the role, and then ended up casting the first person who walked through the door. Miller concluded by jokingly apologizing to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, saying ““Sorry Kathy — we wasted your money”, which she quickly answered “I am going to take it out of your salary”.

We already know that “Episode VIII” includes returning characters such as Hamill and Fisher (if you don’t know why Harrison Ford isn’t going to show up, we’re certainly not gonna tell you), as well as Daisy Ridley, Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie, Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson. We also know of a few new cast members including Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro.

Needless to say, Johnson has big shoes to fill. Director J.J. Abrams and his ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ earned $2.8 billion in box offices worldwide – certainly a hard act to follow. Will this movie make big bucks for Disney or crash? Learn how to trade Disney shares at iFOREX and take advantage of market volatility.