New Star Wars Movie: More Details Revealed

More details have been released about the highly anticipated new Star Wars movie which is due for release in December 2015.

The as-yet unnamed Episode VII will be set 30 years after 1983's Return Of The Jedi and will see the return of the robot character R2-D2.

Directed by JJ Abrams, filming will begin at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire this May and will feature a "trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces", according to the official website .

This has led to speculation that the stars of the original trilogy - Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) - will appear in Episode VII.

There have also been reports that rising stars including Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o, who starred in 12 Years A Slave, and Girls actor Adam Driver were being considered for roles.

Last month, Girls creator and actress Lena Dunham appeared to have let the cat out of the bag by revealing her co-star Driver was to play a villain in the new Star Wars film.

Dunham (@lenadunham) tweeted: "We're VERY proud of Adam Driver re: Star Wars. He's about to rip a hole in da force. Is that a thing? I guess I should see those movies?"

In January, Fisher told a US magazine that she would be reprising her role as Princess Leia, but this has not been confirmed.

And late last year, hundreds of hopefuls queued up to audition in the UK for two leading roles in the movie.

The Walt Disney casting call said it was looking for people to play a girl called Rachel and a boy called Thomas.

News of R2-D2's inclusion and when the new movie will be set were revealed by Walt Disney's chief executive officer Bob Iger.

Disney bought Star Wars production company LucasFilm for $4.05bn (£2.47bn) in 2012 and announced it would release three new films in the popular sci-fi series.

Return Of The Jedi was the third film in the first trilogy of movies which also included Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope in 1977 and Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.

The series is set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

The second trilogy of films - The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith (Episodes I, II and III) - were released between 1999 and 2005 but were generally not as well received by critics and fans.

JJ Abrams has been credited with helping to reboot the Star Trek film franchise in the last few years.