While "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is still months away from being released, Lucasfilm is working hard on the next installment of the sci-fi movie franchise, "Star Wars Episode VIII". Talking to Wired (via The Verge), J.J. Abrams confirmed that "Episode VIII" director Rian Johnson had finished the script of the upcoming project, AceShowbiz reports.

"The script for 'VIII' is written. I'm sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are. But what [Lawrence Kasdan] and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts," Abrams said. "And we knew where certain things were going. We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of 'VIII'."

It is not really surprising that the script for "Star Wars Episode VIII" is finished, considering that the film is slated for a May 2017 release. Johnson's involvement in the film was announced more than a year ago. Some actors like Benicio Del Toro and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have been tapped to star in the upcoming movie.

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg, "Episode VIII" is slated to be released in the U.S. on May 26, 2017.