Star Wars 8 director shares image to commemorate the first day of editing

Star Wars 8 wrapped filming last month in spectacular fashion, bringing to a close the principal photography portion on one of the most anticipated movies since... err... The Force Awakens. With the footage in the can, it's now time for director Rian Johnson to begin shaping and sculpting the sequel. To commemorate his first day of post-production the director shared a snap of himself on Instagram, sat in the edit suite:

Day one!
A photo posted by @riancjohnson on Aug 15, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

As there's well over a year to go before the as-yet untitled Episode 8 arrives he's got plenty of time to tinker around before it gets shipped to theaters. The shoot lasted approximately five months, which means he's got a LOT of footage to rifle through prior to even contemplating the final polished product.

Having such a generous period of time is necessary for a flick of this magnitude. There's all the CGI elements that need to be inserted into the footage along with the possibility of reshoots. We also learned that franchise composer John Williams is back to score the movie, another process that requires a finished, locked-down cut before he can finalise his compositions. In any case, we should definitely expect some more little reveals on Johnson's social media over the next few months.

Directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie, and Benicio del Toro, Star Wars: Episode 8 opens in cinemas on December 15, 2017.

Images: Lucasfilm, Rian Johnson