WordPress 5.0 will be focussed on merging the Gutenberg plugin into trunk. In addition, there are two related areas of new development:
- Updating the default themes to work well with the block editor, and creating the new Twenty Nineteen theme.
- Creating an upgrade experience to remove the Gutenberg plugin and offer the Classic Editor plugin.
Given the scope of this change, there won’t be any extra feature focusses. In order to ensure that we can keep the release schedule, minor changes, and bug fixes will only be included on a case-by-case basis.
Here is the proposed release schedule for WordPress 5.0:
WordPress 5.0 Kickoff meeting: October 3, 2018 (Today! Now!)
Beta 1: October 19, 2018
RC 1: October 30, 2018
Release: November 19, 2018
We know there is a chance that 5.0 will need additional time, so these dates can slip by up to 8 days if needed. If additional time beyond that is required, we will instead aim for the following dates:
Secondary RC 1: January 8, 2019
Secondary Release: January 22, 2019
Should we need to switch to the secondary dates, this will be communicated as soon as we’re aware. It’s also important to note that we have some updates for PHP 7.3 compatibility that must be released in 2018 regardless, and we would have a short 4.9.9 release cycle for them if needed.
I expect the WordPress 5.1 release will be available around March 2019, allowing features outside of the block editor to be launched then.
