He's as much a part of the Star Wars universe as the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca, lightsabers and the Force.

John Williams has been the go-to composer for Star Wars since 1977 and, all the way through the prequels and to The Force Awakens, he's been a part of it all. Now, at 84, Williams is still going strong and announced at a concert last night in Tanglewood, Massachusetts that he's officially accepted the invitation to score Star Wars: Episode VIII.

The composer said during the live concert that he agreed to take on Episode VIII because he was so enchanted by Rey - that's Daisy Ridley's character - and "didn't want another composer scoring her scenes", which really is one of the best compliments you can possibly think of.

Alexandre Desplat will be the first composer that isn't John Williams to score a Star Wars film and shades of his work can already be heard in a few of the trailers for Rogue One. Williams' score for The Force Awakens was one of the many reasons why the film worked so well, especially the finale music when Rey finally meets Luke Skwaylker on Ach-To.

Williams is due to begin scoring sessions for Episode VIII in the next couple of weeks after being shown an early cut of the film by Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm.

Hold tight, people. We're only 487 days from Episode VIII's release date. WE CAN DO THIS.

Via Masslive