'Star Wars: Episode VIII' news: Production ongoing; cast includes Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern

The makers of "Star Wars" just recently announced that production is now ongoing for "Star Wars: Episode VIII."

A 34-second video clip was posted on the official YouTube channel of "Star Wars." In the short clip, the last scene from the latest movie, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," is shown, wherein Rey returns Luke Skywalker's lightsaber. Near the end of the clip, director and writer Rian Johnson says, "Cut!"

The clip finally ends with him continuing, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Episode VIII."

As of the moment, the upcoming episode is still called "Star Wars: Episode VIII." The crew began its initial filming on Monday, Feb. 15, at Pinewood Studios near London.

The upcoming film welcomes new cast members, including Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro ("Traffic"), Academy Award nominee Laura Dern ("Jurassic Park"), and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran. Although relatively new, Entertainment Weekly says that Tran had been on TV shows such as "About a Boy" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

The roles they are to play are still unknown, but Del Torro didn't deny that he is playing a villain character. In his interview with Hitfix, he said, "You know, I'm not supposed to say, but that's what's out there, so I'm not gonna try and fight it."

British actors Daisy Ridley (Rey) and John Boyega (Finn) are coming back for the next movie along with Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong'o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma) and Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke). 

There are rumors saying that Johnson had been rewriting the script to focus more on the characters from the recent "The Force Awakens" movie.

"Star Wars: Episode VIII" was initially scheduled to hit the big screen on May 26, 2017 but was moved to Dec. 15 of the same year.