John Boyega begins work on Episode VIII, calls it a “much darker” film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

After being forced to keep so many secrets to themselves for over a year, the cast and crew of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS must be relieved that they can finally talk freely about the film; unfortunately for them, there's still a pair of sequels to come. More sequels, more secrets. During a recent interview with Vogue, John Boyega mentioned that while it felt good to be able to talk about everything openly, he's back to keeping his lips zipped as work has begun on the next installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII.

We just starting work on Star Wars VIII, the next film, so I'm back to keeping secrets again. It's great. Much darker, but we're very excited.

Coming on the heels of J.J. Abrams' explanation for why STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS felt more than a little like A NEW HOPE, Boyega's labeling of the next film as "darker" will surely get fans wondering whether STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII will be borrowing elements from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in a similiar fashion. Nods to the original trilogy were flying left and right throughout THE FORCE AWAKENS, but I wasn't one of those who felt bothered by them; I feel like enough was put into place to enable STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII to take this new trilogy in a fresh direction, at least, that's my hope. John Boyega obviously wouldn't offer up many hints on what we can expect from the next episode, other than we'll get to see more action from Finn this time around.

My part in the next film will be much more physical so I might be in the gym a bit more.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII is set for a May 26, 2017 release.