Jedi mania hits Manchester ahead of the launch of latest Star Wars film

Jedi fever has hit the UK ahead of the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Thursday, 14th December.

Two martial arts experts were given lightsabers to train with for a week before they duelled across Manchester.

And Disney commissioned Star Wars fan and photographer Matt Scutt to create a series of stunning light trail pictures using the famous Jedi weapon.

Instagram sensation Matt, who is famous for his long exposure photographs and has over 307,000 followers, toured the UK last week to produce the remarkable set of images with Star Wars fans wielding a variety of different coloured sabers.

Passersby in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool witnessed the photoshoots, with Matt teaming up with Star Wars fans in each city to create images, which took over four hours each to complete.

I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid so to be given the chance to capture lightsabers in action was a dream project,” said Matt.

“From day one of our shoot here in the UK the feeling of excitement and love for Star Wars has been palpable; and if you grew up loving Star Wars, you grew up loving lightsabers,” said the film’s writer and director, Rian Johnson.

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of the UK’s biggest film of all time, The Force Awakens, join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.

Star Wars fans are being given the opportunity to become Jedi Knights and learn how to wield lightsabers in combat with lightsaber combat a growing sport and clubs for children and adults popping up across the UK.

Jediism was officially recognised as a religion in 2001 and is now the 7th most popular faith in the UK. Latest census figures revealed that 176,632 people in England and Wales identify themselves as Jedi Knights.Â

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is showing at the Odeon, Great Northern Warehouse and intu Trafford Centre.