Having wrapped shooting on the untitled “Star Wars: Episode VIII” back in July, writer-director Rian Johnson has now begun editing the film. The new phase of post-production on next year’s anticipated The Force Awakens follow-up was announced Tuesday by Johnson who posted a picture of his editing suite to Instagram.
The film, which is written and directed by Johnson, sees the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.
New cast members include Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern, and Kelly Marie Tran. Kathleen Kennedy is producing along with Johnson’s producing partner Ram Bergman. John Williams will compose the score.
The story will begin with the final scene of The Force Awakens, in which Rey reaches out to Luke Skywalker, offering his lightsaber. No other story details are known, except that the film has been referred to as “weird,” and “darker,” by some of the key players.
“Rian [Johnson] is definitely going to places and investigating things that haven’t really been done in the ‘Star Wars’ universe,” Oscar Isaac told the Los Angeles Times. “For me, it’s so fun getting to explore different things that I wouldn’t have expected in this universe. In some ways it feels like we’re making an independent film. Certain things we get to play with — this kind of intimacy that we get to find — it’s special. It’s been really fun.”
Star Wars: Episode VIII arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017.
