Star Wars author Alan Dean Foster says that Disney told him to remove any romantic scenes between Finn and Rey in his novelisation of 2015’s The Force Awakens.

Foster was recruited by JJ Abrams to write the official novelisation for the film, as he did with George Lucas’ original film in 1976, which was published under Lucas’ name but ghostwritten by Foster.

• READ MORE: Star Wars: The Force Awakens – The NME Review

Speaking to Midnight’s Edge, Foster says he put a scene that hinted at a future romance between Daisy Ridley and John Boyega’s characters in his novel, which he expected to be expanded upon in 2017’s The Last Jedi.

“There were a couple of things in there, and a couple of things that happened subsequently that bothered me,” he revealed of the process of working with Disney on the novel.

“I’m going to tell you one thing they made me take out because enough time has passed, I don’t think it matters,” he added.

“There was obviously the beginnings of a relationship between John Boyega’s character and Daisy Ridley’s character [in Abrams’ screenplay]. I expected to see that developed further in Episode VIII [The Last Jedi], and zero happened with it.”

Reviewing The Force Awakens upon its release, NME wrote: “Abrams has as thoroughly captured the original spirit as could be reasonably hoped. The old characters feel like weathered versions of themselves, the new ones live convincingly alongside them.

“And because we know this is the start of another trilogy – and then some, most likely – Abrams give you just what you want at the end: enough of a tease to make you start anticipating all over again.”

Elsewhere, Darth Vader has been voted as the greatest Star Wars villain of all time. In a poll by the Radio Times, in which 10,000 votes were cast for 16 baddies, the dark lord of the Sith came out on top securing 33 per cent of the final tally.

Sheev Palpatine – played by Ian McDiarmid – came in second place on the list, while Darth Maul claimed six percent of the votes as did Boba Fett, who recently returned to the franchise in the second series of The Mandalorian.