Star Wars Episode 8 Actor Compares Film to Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars actor Adam Driver, who played Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens and will reprise the role for 2017's Episode VIII, has shared some new insight into the upcoming film's script.

Most interestingly, he compared the movie's script to The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, Driver did not give anything away, but he said the film will be tonally different than The Force Awakens, just as The Empire Strikes Back was compared to A New Hope.

"It's great," Driver said of the Episode VIII script. "It's similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go, 'Oooh, it's dark.' But I don't know that it necessarily is. It's just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear.

"[Director Rian Johnson] trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He's not dumbing anything down for someone and that's really fun to play," he added.

Many members of the Episode VIII cast have talked about how the movie will be "darker" than The Force Awakens, but Driver appears to be among the first to temper expectations on that front.

Also in the interview, Driver talked about how the energy on set compared to The Force Awakens.

"The stakes are even higher, I think. No one's relaxing," he said. "Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I didn't feel more relaxed as if we'd accomplished anything. It's one more reason we have to redouble our efforts and just make it even more specific, but then you also have to let it all go and not think too much while you're working on it."

Go to Collider to read the full interview.

Episode VIII finished shooting in July. At the Star Wars Celebration Europe convention in July, Johnson talked about how this will be the movie where "we start zooming in on the characters and getting to the heart of them, challenging them, and pushing them deeper."

The film arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017. It stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.