John Boyega Admits He's Still A 'Massive' Fan Of 'Star Wars'

Actor John Boyega is still a fan of the "Star Wars" franchise, even if he isn't totally happy with the way that his character was treated during the sequel trilogy.

When the trilogy first got underway with 2015's "The Force Awakens," Boyega's character Finn seemed to be on the front lines right alongside Daisy Ridley's Rey.

However, his character got pushed aside in 2017's controversial "The Last Jedi" to put more spotlight on Adam Driver's villainous Kylo Ren. By the time 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker," came around, Finn spent most of the movie trying to tell Rey something that was never actually shared on screen.

In 2020, Boyega slammed Disney in an interview with GQ Magazine, saying, “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.”

“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f--- all," he continued. "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," he added. "I’m not exposing anything.”

However, since that time, he has spoken to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to discuss his concerns about the way the franchise treats characters of color. Boyega told the BBC (via CBR) that the two had a "really nice, transparent, honest conversation."

"So I got on a phone call with Kathleen Kennedy [Lucasfilm President] and she verbally showed support and we got to have a really nice, transparent, honest conversation that is beneficial to both of us," Boyega told the BBC later that year. "I think these kinds of conversations, you can go into the realm of sounding like you’re just trying to save your own career, but what is great now is that it is a conversation that anyone has access to."

"Now people can express themselves about this knowing that any character we love, especially in these big franchises like the Marvels and Star Wars, we love them because of the moments that they are given, we love them because of those moments, and they’re heroic moments that these producers all decide for these characters so we need to see that in our characters that are maybe black and from other cultures," he continued.

But in a new interview with Total Film Magazine (via Variety), John Boyega insisted that he doesn't want to talk about the way that his character was treated by the franchise any longer. “I’ve said what I said on it, and that doesn’t change overnight. We handled that years ago," he said, adding, "[There’s no point] recycling the same story that’s been for two years.”

Although he was critical of the franchise for the way they handled Finn, he said that he is still a "massive, massive" Star Wars fan and even corrected things on-set to fit into the larger Star Wars canon.

“I was the person on set correcting stuff,” Boyega explained. “Like the flying jet troopers that we had in ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ Poe had been saying, ‘They fly now’ and I thought they had seen the flying jet troopers from [animated TV series] ‘The Clone Wars.’ I play the games on ‘Battlefront.’ I have a robust relationship with the whole ‘Star Wars’ stuff.”

Boyega went on to recall his first experience with the galaxy far, far away, saying, “My first interaction with ‘Star Wars’ was a Darth Maul figure.” He added, “I’m a ’90s baby so I came during the prequels. I was like, ‘Bloody h---, man.’ I didn’t know what it was but I knew it looked cool and there were spaceships and glow sticks that could slash your wrist off."

"Then I went back to the old ‘Star Wars’ after. OK, I’m guilty – I did say that the effects are s--- when I was younger! I didn’t know any better," he continued. "Then I grew into maturity and was in love with it. I still am in love with it. I bloody love it. But it’s almost nicer not having to be in it, and not having to deal with that. It’s weird, you just go back to being a fan again and see yourself in the games.”

Even though he has admitted to watching the Disney+ series "Obi-Wan Kenobi" and "The Mandalorian," John Boyega has no plans to reprise his role as Finn. In an August 2022 interview with SiriusXM’s Tell Me Everything With John Fugelsang, Boyega said, "At this point, I’m cool off it. I’m good off it."

"I think Finn is at a good confirmation point where you can just enjoy him in other things, the games, the animation," he added. "But I feel like '[Episode] VII' to '[Episode] IX' was good for me."