Star Wars 8 'trailer' teased by Mark Hamill with joke tweet

The Star Wars actor claimed he'd been given the go-ahead by director Rian Johnson to show the Episode 8 "trailer" - but things weren't as they seemed

Mark Hamill has discovered a new favourite hobby, and it's driving his fans up the wall by deliberately messing with them on social media.

The Star Wars actor has been having what some might call "too much fun" on Twitter as of late, endlessly teasing his 1.7M followers with misleading hints about what's in store for Episode VIII.

Taking a break from the usual trickery of playing around with the current hysteria over whether Rey is (or isn't) Luke Skywalker's daughter, Hamill announced to fans that Episode VIII's director Rian Johnson had given him the go-ahead to reveal a brief glimpse of the film's "trailer".

Of course, by "trailer", he meant a photograph of his actual on-set trailer. Surely you didn't think he meant anything else by that, right?

Foiled again, the internet cried; shaking their collective fists to the skies. Looks as if Hamill's perhaps gotten a little too into character as The Joker for his return to voicing the role in the upcoming The Killing Joke animated film.

Fans did at least get to pour over the recent Rogue One trailer; the first of several spin-offs for the franchise, which follows the Rebel fighters who stole the plans for the Death Star which feature so centrally in the opening of A New Hope.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits UK theatres 16 December.