nerd radio

Get ready for the new daily show

John Boyega would return to Star Wars if JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy were in charge

May 31st, 2021 by Marc Comments

Star of the Star Wars sequel trilogy John Boyega has, surprisingly, said that he would come back to Star Wars… despite being very open about his negative feeling towards how he – and his character, Finn – were handled.

In a new interview, the actor said that, so long as Kathleen Kennedy and JJ Abrams were involved, it would be a ‘no brainer’.

It’s interesting that he mentioned JJ Abrams because Abrams set Finn up to be a Jedi, a powerful and important figure in the new world of Star Wars before Rian Johnson totally dismantled him and reduced him to comic relief.

Boyega has previously been vocal about his treatment at Disney/Lucasfilm, saying: “You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] 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. I’ll say it straight up.”

He is, of course talking about the fact that Finn was clearly set to be an important part of where Star Wars went next and looked like, over the course of the new trilogy, he and Daisy Ridley’s Rey were set to bring the Jedi back and lead the galaxy into a new period of peace and harmony. However, what followed was scandals over Finn being removed from movie posters (Google it, I’m not getting into the politics here) and the complete reversal of everything that was set up in The Force Awakens, so Finn could become a laughing stock sent on baffling side quests and never living up to the promise of the first movie.

“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” he said.

“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–k all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”

And he is telling the truth.

In The Last Jedi Finn’s Jedi arc was completely ignored with Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron (a character who was originally meant to die in The Force Awakens) and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren stepping up and stealing the spotlight. Ridley’s Rey was always meant to be in the spotlight but it’s hard to believe that Finn wasn’t meant to be there with her.

And it’s also true that by the time the shambles of Johnson’s movie was over, JJ Abrams – called back to try to fix the trilogy story after it was left in ruins – was left with too little time and too much to fix and while Finn’s Force sensitivity was definitely touched on again, sadly there just wasn’t enough time to bring everything back together. It’s undoubtedly because of this that Boyega name drops Abrams because he knows that he tried to give Finn the arc he deserved.

And, truth be told, I wouldn’t rule out seeing Boyega and maybe Ridley back at some point – given the proper writers and respect for the lore and the characters, there’s still a great Jedi Academy story in there to be told and Boyega deserves his chance to give the fans, and himself, what was promised them.

Anyway, would you like to see Finn back in Star Wars? I know I would but I want to hear your thoughts.

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….