Star Wars is big business right now for Disney who have no less than four different Star Wars films in the pipeline. Now we know a little more about one of them as the upcoming Hans Solo film has been given a release date.

Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the Star Wars rogue’s standalone movie is scheduled for a release in May 2018 – and has already entered production.

“This is the first of a set of planned stand-alone stories,” the big boss said when speaking about Rogue One. “We’re already in preproduction on our next one, for release in May of 2018.”

Iger started that filming has started on Episode VIII – which itself is due out in December 2017 – having been pushed back from May 2017 itself. We still have no news on Episode IX‘s release date.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hans Solo movie ends up being pushed back to December. That seems to have become the Star Wars month – giving the franchise the chance to become an annual fixture on the calendar. Anyone who watched the Force Awakens will know that Hans Solo featured prominently in that instalment – so this film will be an interesting expansion for the character.