Star Wars sequel trilogy suggested Hamill could have a cameo role in "Episode IX", which he imagined filming by 2011. A "Time" magazine story in March 1978, quoting Lucas, stated there would be ten "Star Wars" films after "The Empire Strikes Back". Gary Kurtz was also aware of proposed story elements for "Episode VII" to "Episode IX" before 1980. In 1980, at the time of the release of "The Empire Strikes Back", Lucas said there were seven further "Star Wars" films he wanted to make. He said he had "twelve-page outlines" for those films. In an interview with Jim Steranko in "Prevue" magazine published
Star Wars sequel trilogy and a week later, it was announced that J.J. Abrams would return to direct "Episode IX". He would the script with Chris Terrio, in addition to producing the film through his company Bad Robot Productions, with Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan. Disney had originally scheduled the film's release for December 2019, in keeping with the previous two sequel trilogy films, but then moved it up to May 24, a time of the year more common to the first six "Star Wars" episodes. However, after Abrams' return, its release date was moved back to December. On January 10, 2018, it was reported