Star Wars: The Last Jedi director teases opening crawl in editing room photo

Director Rian Johnson has shared a picture from the editing suite of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ following yesterday’s (23 January) announcement of film’s full title.

The picture, shared on Johnson’s Instagram account, shows the beginning of the film’s opening crawl, which reads “Episode VIII: The Last Jedi” with no further text.

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A toy R2-D2 also features in the office, as does a member of Johnson’s editing team busy at work. Naturally there’s no juicy information to be gleaned from his computer.

“Felt so good to drop this into the cut this morning,” he said in the post, revealing that ‘The Last Jedi’ is shrouded in so much secretly he hadn’t even yet committed the film’s title to film.

A regular Instagram user, Johnson – best known for directing sci-fi hit ‘Looper’ and multiple episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’ – has teased the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ sequel before.

He’s shared pictures from the earliest days of the film’s shoot on Ireland’s Skellig Islands, teased the Millenium Falcon’s holographic chessboard and notes he made in 2014 before he had even read the script for 2015’s ‘The Force Awakens’.

Other than the title reveal yesterday and the poster that accompanied it, nothing is known about the film beyond its cast and crew. The title likely refers to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, Daisy Ridley’s Rey or both (the plural of Jedi is Jedi remember). The pair’s relationship will be central to the upcoming film.

With no trailer yet released for the film, despite it being less than a year away from hitting cinemas, speculation is rampant as to when Disney and LucasFilm will first offer fans a glimpse.

One theory relates to the marketing strategy of J.J. Abrams’ ‘The Force Awakens’, which released its first trailer two weeks after the title of the film was announced. Two weeks from ‘The Last Jedi’s title announcement is Super Bowl 51 – the major sporting event film trailers are often tied to.

Hamill and Ridley will star alongside returning faces John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Anthony Daniels and the late Carrie Fisher.

New faces Benecio del Toro and Laura Dern also join the cast, in mysterious roles.

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ will be released on 15 December.