LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - The final film in the new Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX, will be released in May 2019, movie studio Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday (April 25).

The May 24 release date marked a shift in strategy for Disney, whose two previous new entries in the sci-fi adventure have all been set for release in mid-December, during the winter holidays.

Disney gave no details on Star Wars: Episode IX, about which little is known except that it will be directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Episode IX completes the trilogy that began after Disney bought George Lucas' Lucasfilm in a US$4 billion deal in 2012.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which reunited the original cast of the first 1977 film, was released in December 2015, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi is due to open worldwide on Dec 15, 2017.

Disney on Tuesday also announced that another of its blockbuster franchise revivals, a new Indiana Jones movie starring Harrison Ford, had been pushed back by a year to July 2020.

The studio gave no explanation for the change in the release date for the as-yet untitled film that had been originally scheduled for July 2019.