Star Wars Actor Says JJ Abrams Wouldn’t Stop Forcing One Point
Sadly, it's not surprising.
After acquiring Star Wars, Disney went all-in with a big sequel trilogy. Though there were some decent parts, the movies were largely criticized by the fanbase. Though they started off strong with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans were divided in a love-it-or-hate-it way with the Rian Johnson-directed Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Then it all really fell apart with Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. And fans weren’t the only ones disappointed with the direction the movies took. John Boyega has been very outspoken about his character’s path in the films, with Finn having an interesting arc in the beginning before getting shuffled to the background in favor of some of the other characters.
According to John Boyega, JJ Abrams was really focused on making Finn Force-sensitive. Talking to MTV’s Josh Horowitz, Boyega said “It was a discussion from VII that was kind of brewing, because you didn’t know which way it was gonna go, right? And then VIII went in another direction.” He further elaborated, saying “But obviously with the different creative differences in the middle and then getting to the third, it’s kind of like he still wanted to you know just force it in there, just squeeze it in there.”
John Boyega played a Stormtrooper named Finn who defected from the villainous First Order. In the first film of the sequel trilogy, we see Finn wield a lightsaber, fairly effectively. This could have been JJ Abrams dropping the clues that Finn had Force sensitivity. This led many to believe that Finn would eventually become a Jedi, but that storyline never came to fruition. There are some other hints peppered in that indicate Finn’s Force sensitivity, but it never becomes a significant plot point. It’s certainly understandable that Boyega is disappointed with his character being pushed aside.
Although the Star Wars sequel trilogy made a ton of money, the critical and fan backlash to the films has been fairly significant. This may have caused Disney to slightly redirect their Star Wars efforts, as most of their movie projects are sort of on the back burner. While there have been announcements about Star Wars movies with creators and producers like Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, and Kevin Fiege attached, the forward momentum on them has been slow. Fortunately for Star Wars fans, Disney has been going all in with their Star Wars shows. These series have been met with a much warmer reception among fans, with shows like The Mandalorian getting a lot of critical and commercial love. Who knows, with all the Star Wars projects in the works, maybe John Boyega’s character could get some more screen time. Series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars have done a lot to take the ideas of the previously reviled prequel trilogy (which now has a bigger fanbase than ever) and flesh them out, making the movies better in the process.
Perhaps there will be an animated Clone Wars-type series in the future to redeem aspects of the sequel trilogy, including John Boyega’s Finn. If not, fans will just have to deal with the story that got in those films. In the meantime, Disney is hitting us with tons of Star Wars shows in 2022 and beyond. You can check out Andor when it hits Disney+ on September 21. The second season of The Bad Batch and the new animated series Tales of the Jedi all come out this year. You can look forward to The Mandalorian‘s third season in February and the Ahsoka series in 2023 as well.
