Watch Star Wars 8 being filmed by Rian Johnson in production announcement

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Star Wars: Episode VIII officially commenced filming 15 February; as previewed by a new clip on the film's official YouTube channel.

The clip offers what, technically, constitutes as our first look at footage from Rian Johnson's contribution to the Star Wars franchise. It also seems to tease that the new film will be picking up where The Force Awakens left off, showing a brooding Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) looking down to Rey (Daisy Ridley), offering up his lightsaber to him.

We also see the film's director hard at work behind the camera; exclaiming, "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Episode VIII!"

The news isn't exactly a huge surprise: EE Rising Star Award winner John Boyega joked about his 6am pick up time for the film during Sunday's BAFTAs awards ceremony. Yet it's exciting to see that sense of continuation is in place for the sequel, coming a whole year after this year's spin-off anthology tale Rogue One, hitting theatres 16 December.

The video accompanied an official statement which dropped a fairly major casting announcement: Jurassic Park's Laura Dern will be joining the film in an undisclosed role, alongside the previously announced Benicio del Toro.

Star Wars: Episode VIII hits UK theatres 15 December 2017.