John Boyega put himself on the map with a star-making performance in Attack the Block. When he later travelled into a Galaxy Far, Far Away for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we had high hopes for his Stormtrooper-turned-Jedi.
Unfortunately, Lucasfilm dropped the ball on Finn, and his story arc disappointed Boyega and Star Wars fans in equal measure. The Last Jedi separated him from Daisy Ridley's Rey and completely ditched the idea of a Stormtrooper potentially being attuned to the Force. The Rise of Skywalker revisited that subplot at a surface level but didn't fully commit to it.
The British actor hasn't shied away from sharing his disappointment with his character arc or the Star Wars franchise as a whole. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, he once again called out prejudiced fans and the way they treated Black heroes and villains.
"Lemme tell ya, Star Wars always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space," Boyega said. "It's a franchise that's so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something."
"You can always tell it's something when some Star Wars fans try to say, 'Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!'" he continued. "It's like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It's like, they just scattered that in there, bro!"
"They're okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it's like, 'Oh my God, it's just a bit too much! They're pandering!'" he said, referencing the now-expected backlash when a franchise like Star Wars casts a Black actor in a lead role.
That was seen as recently as last year when Amandla Stenberg was tapped to play twins Osha and Mae in The Acolyte. Before that, Ewan McGregor had to very publicly hit back at those attacking his Obi-Wan Kenobi co-star, Moses Ingram.
Addressing Finn's character arc in a 2020 interview, Boyega said, "What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It's not good."
He argued that the trilogy gave "all the nuance" to Ridley and Adam Driver and added, "You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f*ck all."
While Ridley is expected to reprise her role as Rey for a new Star Wars movie directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, there's been nothing to suggest we'll also pick up with Finn there. We may get to find out whether he decided to tell her about being Force-sensitive, though.
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