‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ — John Boyega Says The Next Film Will Be ‘Much Darker,’ Plus Will We See Jabba The Hutt?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still crushing box office records and Lucasfilm is already looking forward to the next movie in line for the franchise: Star Wars: Episode VIII. While The Force Awakens contained a fairly light and action-heavy storyline, will the next film be darker in tone?

John Boyega, who plays Finn, recently revealed in an interview with Vogue that the upcoming movie will be darker than the first.

“It’s great. Much darker, but we’re very excited,” Boyega stated.

Boyega’s comments are not that surprising given how The Force Awakens took a dark turn towards the end with a certain character’s death. But, just how dark are filmmakers willing to take the series? Is this an indication that another character in the franchise will be meeting an unexpected end?

According to Movie Pilot, Episode VIII might be closer in tone to The Empire Strikes Back than anything else. After all, The Force Awakens has already drawn a lot of comparisons to A New Hope, which makes it likely that the upcoming movie will following the same trend in the series.

Apart from dishing a few details about the upcoming movie and admitting how relieved he is that TFA is finally out, Boyega also revealed a bit about his character’s role in the upcoming film. While he remained vague on the details, he did state that fans can expect Finn to be “more physical” this time around.

“My part in the next film will be much more physical, so I might be in the gym a bit more,” he stated.

Exactly what that means is yet to be seen, but it is possible that Finn will need to take more of a lead in the film. This might even mean that Finn becomes the new Han Solo, which are definitely big shoes to fill.

Meanwhile, apart from the dark storyline reveal, Slash Film is reporting that a certain villain named Jabba The Hutt is set to make a return in the next Star Wars film. The news of a potential resurrection of Jabba was broke by Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould, both of whom worked on the special effects for the franchise.

“There is a huge amount of secrecy around all of the films and we never really know exactly what the characters are until way way down the line,” Scanlan revealed. “We have heard rumours of all different characters coming back and I had heard Jabba The Hutt, but to be honest I cannot confirm that one way or the other, It is certainly not on the cards quite yet.”

Although Jabba was killed off in The Phantom Menace, there is a possibility that the character will be included in Han Solo’s upcoming spinoff. After all, Han and Jabba do share a fairly large and complicated history with each other, and Jabba’s inclusion would make sense in the larger context of the series.

According to The Guardian, Star Wars: Episode VIII is set to feature a new director to go along with the darker tone, with JJ Abrams handing off the series to Rian Johnson. The film will see the return of Boyega as Finn, Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

In addition to the returning the cast, Benicio Del Toro has also been cast to play a role in the upcoming movie. However, the details concerning his part have yet to be released.

Star Wars: Episode VIII is scheduled to be released on May 26, 2017.

Tell us! Why do you think Star Wars: Episode VIII will be darker? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via LucasFilm/Disney]