Originally Posted by
ChrisIII
The Force Awakens was actually originally planned by Disney to be released in the traditional late May release for Star Wars films, but when Abrams started production, the film's release was moved to December.
This isn't the first time this happened with Abrams, as the Star Trek reboot film was originally planned for a December 2008 release, but eventually wound up in Summer 2009.
Although Abrams isn't directing the next film (Rian Johnson is), it's set for a May 2017 release date, only about a year and a half from now, which is the closest gap between main saga Star Wars films (and then there's Rogue One). The Lucas films took about three years to make, but that's probably due to their heavy effects work. Although given the speed at which Disney in which Disney is releasing MCU films, maybe it's not a big problem, but I'm just wondering if it's possible this will happen. The production of the new Star Wars films has not been without it's hiccups-not only the previous delay, but the whole Josh Trank/Fantastic Four mess which put an end to his involvement in the Han Solo film. (granted, the originals had many, many production issues-Lucas's stress, Empire's budget problems, the complaints from pretty much every actor involved in episodes I-III etc.)