Star Wars Episode 8 Trailer: Could Star Wars Celebration Be Planned Release Date?

Star Wars Episode 8 finally received its full title earlier in the week, and fans are going back to wondering when the trailer will be released. The two recent Star Wars films have fans increasingly excited for the numerous future projects coming to the franchise, and Episode 8: the Last Jedi is constantly a talking point and a source of anticipation.

Many feel that the trailer for Star Wars Episode 8 should have been out by now. The first full-length trailer for Episode 7: the Force Awakens was released more than a year before the release of the film. As we are in the new year and are less than 11 months away from the release of the sequel, it is a curious case of it being a matter of time. Still, knowing the exact date of a trailer release would certainly ease the minds of fans.

Some might argue the reason that marketing for the movie took longer to get rolling is the fact that Lucasfilm just released another Star Wars film not too long ago in Rogue One. It is the precise reason behind the so-called delay of the trailer’s release, according to Independent. Putting up a trailer for the next Star Wars movie so soon after the last one would be like choking the air out of the last one and taking away its room to breathe. “We’re giving this a little bit of breathing room,” LucasFilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy said.

Kennedy has already said that we won’t be seeing any footage for Star Wars Episode 8 until the Spring, so that likely rules out February and March. Even though this year’s SuperBowl – a televised event that draws the highest dollar amount of advertising on a single day each year – will take place on the first Sunday in February, it doesn’t seem likely that Disney will release the trailer then. They could release a teaser trailer that shows limited footage, or none at all, though they might not see the value of spending the money to do so. Also considering that we just received the title of the movie not too long ago, the studio might leave some time before revealing the next big thing, even though The Force Awakens had a trailer online three weeks after the reveal of the title.

The first promotion video for Rogue One: a Star Wars Story came out during last year’s Star Wars Celebration. We should also remember that the first trailer for the series’ first anthology film came out in April last year. So it would not be the first time that a first Star Wars trailer comes out so close to the movie’s release. Considering Rogue One‘s success at the box office despite some initial worry about its performance, the fact that it had a shorter marketing period indicates that Disney does not need to rely as heavily on marketing as other movie studios to ensure success of their films because Star Wars has one of the largest followings in the world.

Taking all of this into consideration, it makes the most sense for a Star Wars trailer to come out in April. Disney has shown that they prefer promoting their products at their own events. With Marvel films, the company has chosen to premiere trailers at their D-23 conventions rather than Comic-Con, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live rather than other television talk shows, for example. With this year’s Star Wars Celebration taking place in April, it is the best bet for the trailer to come out then and there.

Star Wars Episode 8: the Last Jedi comes out in theaters on December 15, 2017.

[Featured Image by Jesse Grant/Getty Images]