Since this trilogy is clearly mirroring the original trilogy of course "Episode 8" would be the darker chapter. Rey will train with Luke and Finn will come out of coma probably from a dream or something. There's always a timeskip with the episodes. I see Episode 8 picking up a year later. I also expect to be Finn coming out of shell even more in this film now that we will know more about his character. I still beleive he will being using a Lightsaber again in this film and we should be seeing him grow with the force in this film. I can't believe we are basically a year a few months out from Episode 8. Rian Johnson doesn't have a lot of credits but I loved "Looper" so I'm expecting a really different sci-fi movie from him. JJ was more by the book because it was the first film and they had to reintroduce the world. I expect Rian to bring way more originality but there will be call backs to the original trilogy again. Hopefully Luke and Leia have bigger roles in this one.