Kerry shines in Last Jedi behind the scenes trailer

THE latest footage from Star Wars: The Last Jedi again highlights Kerry and Skellig Michael’s major role in the upcoming science fiction blockbuster.

The eighth film in the wildly popular Star Wars series will be released on December 15 and with just five months left until it hits cinemas, anticipation among fans is at fever pitch.

During Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California last week the filmmakers showed fans a brief, three minute, clip that took fans behind the scenes of The Last Jedi shoot.

Much of the clip – almost half of it – focussed on the film’s shoots on Skellig Michael in September 2015 and at Ceann Sibéal in May 2016.

Due to the difficulties of filming on the UNESCO world heritage site, Ceann Sibéal was used as a double for Skellig Michael which provided the backdrop to the closing scene of the last Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

The next movie takes up immediately where the last film left off and the Skelligs and Ceann Sibéal – known as the planet Ahch To in the films – are expected to provide the setting for much of the film.

These scenes will involve Mark Hamill’s hermit Jedi Luke Skywalker training Daisy Ridley’s Rey.

The clip also revealed a new species that inhabits the islands in the Star Wars universe.

Apparently called ‘porgs’, the cute (but supposedly vicious) little creatures are a mixture of seals and the puffins that are native to the Skelligs. Expect to see a lot of them in toy shops next Christmas.

All images courtesy Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director Rian Johnson fine tunes a shot from a training montage involving Daisy Ridley’s ‘Rey’ next to the famous ‘Wailing Woman’ Rock on Skellig Michael.

In what looks like being an iconic Star Wars’ image Mark Hamill, as Luke Skywalker, gazes out over the sea from the cliffs at Ceann Sibéal. (Inset) Rey trains above the Skellig helipad.

A special effects technician with one of the animatronic puffin and seal inspired ‘porgs’ that inhabit Skellig Michael in the film.

Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker receives his lightsabre from Daisy Ridley’s Rey.