John Boyega says Star Wars Episode VIII is "darker" and "bigger"

"Someone will say: “How do you get bigger than ‘Force Awakens?'” But it’s crazy," Boyega told Variety. "Rian Johnson is great."

He's coy about going into detail about whether his own character - former stormtrooper Finn - gets darker.

"My skin colour does because of the heat on the job! That’s me dodging your question because Disney has spies everywhere. If I answer this, I get killed, and I’m not in episode nine."

Although there's good news there it seems. Asked how many films Boyega has signed up to, it sounds like Finn is here for the duration.

"We’re doing a trilogy (7, 8, 9)."

As for any romance between Finn and Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), Boyega says it won't go the way some viewers may expect.

"I mean, we didn’t establish a romance in seven; we never played it that way. Daisy and I, we’re friends.

"Finn and Rey – they’re just friends. Finn is a stormtrooper, so he doesn’t really know what’s going on. So the romance thing is something that’s going to be interesting in the next instalment," he explains. "It’s not going to go the way you think it’s going to go."

Whether that hints at a different romantic attachment for Rey or Finn remains to be seen. Of course, there's already been much talk of more than a bromance between Finn and pilot Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac).

Boyega told us at Bafta earlier this year: “Now I’m learning what Mark Hamill said before when he didn’t know that Darth Vader was Luke’s father: you never know what they’re going to pull. I’m looking at the director closely so he can get me involved early, so I can prepare myself. So who knows?”