John Boyega Teases "Much Darker" Star Wars: Episode VIII, Says He'll Be Hitting the Gym More

Finn will be seeing more action in the upcoming installment

By Francesca Bacardi Jan 12, 2016 4:42 PMTags
John Boyega, Star WarsFrazer Harrison/Getty Images

Fans who gobbled up Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be happy to know that Star Wars: Episode VIII is already in production and star John Boyega is starting to tease it.

While filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Boyega and his co-stars were forced to conceal secrets, even going so far as to lie about their whereabouts, so when the movie was finally released he could breathe a sigh of relief (spoilers ahead).

"Yes, at last! Han Solo dies, OK? He dies. Phew. It feels good," he tells Vogue UK. "But now, we just starting work on Star Wars VIII, the next film, so I'm back to keeping secrets again."

Unfortunately, he wouldn't give away too much information about the highly anticipated follow-up, but he did give readers this nugget. "It's great," he said of the script. "Much darker, but we're very excited."

Christopher Jue/Getty Images

What could be darker than Kylo Ren killing his own father, Han Solo?! We'll just have to wait and see, but he did also say that there might be more action for his character Finn in the next movie. As a result, he'll be working out more than he did for The Force Awakens.

"No, for [The Force Awakens] we really just took it scene by scene, there wasn't a huge regime," he said of getting lightsaber-ready. "My part in the next film will be much more physical so I might be in the gym a bit more."

Although didn't give away too much information, E! News has rounded up everything we know so far about the next film. For starters, J.J. Abrams will not co-write or direct the next movie, unlike The Force Awakens. Instead he's passing the torch to Rian Johnson, who helmed Looper.

Watch: John Boyega's Describes First Day on "Star Wars" Set

The script is complete and filming has already begun, but rewrites and reshoots are probably inevitable. Abrams invited Johnson along to watch filming of The Force Awakens to make the transition between directors more seamless. Abrams told Wired that Johnson "has asked for a couple of things here and there that he needs for his story. He is an incredibly accomplished filmmaker and an incredibly strong writer. So the story he told took what we were doing and went in the direction that he felt was best but that is very much in line with what we were thinking as well."

Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Issac are all slated to return, but Benicio Del Toro also has already confirmed his casting. Gwendoline Christie's character, Captain Phasma, will also have a bigger role.

Are you excited for Episode VIII?