John Boyega: 'New Star Wars film will be bigger and darker'

John Boyega has revealed that the next installment of the Star Wars saga will be "bigger and darker".

The British actor, who plays rebel stormtrooper Finn in the movie trilogy, said fans should expect something much different to last year's (15) Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.

Rian Johnson is at the helm of the next movie in the franchise, temporarily titled Star Wars: Episode VIII, and John confirmed that the offering will be an entirely different beast to its predecessor.

"Rian Johnson is great. It's a different take, darker, bigger. Someone will say, 'How do you get bigger than 'Force Awakens?' But it's crazy," he told Variety.com while at Cannes Film Festival on Friday (13May16).

Little is known about the direction of the new movie, but it has been confirmed Force Awakens stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will all be returning.

In The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams, John's character Finn defects from Kylo Ren's evil First Order, and joins the Resistance to help protect the universe from Ren's clutches. And, when asked if his character Finn would be darker in the new movie, he jokingly dodged the question to avoid the wrath of Disney studio bosses.

"My skin color 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," he laughed.

John also dashed the hopes of fans who were hoping for a potential romance between Finn and Daisy's character Rey. "I mean, we didn't establish a romance in seven (The Force Awakens); 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 installment. It's not going to go the way you think it's going to go."

Star Wars: Episode VIII is slated for release in December 2017.