John Boyega, who performed Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, stated that he has no choice to revisit the role.
“At this point, I’m cool off it. I’m good off it,” Boyega stated in an interview with SiriusXM’s Tell Me Everything With John Fugelsang when requested if he could play the character once more. He added that he is moved directly to different projects and desires to maintain to play plenty of roles. “I think, to be fair, the allies that I’ve found within Joel Taylor and Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris, Viola Davis, all these people I’ve been working with — versatility is my path.”
Boyega is happy to see his character carry on with out him into different media, however thinks he is spent all the time he wishes to playing the former Stormtrooper. “I think Finn is at a good confirmation point where you can just enjoy him in different things, the games, the animation. But I sense like ‘[Episode] VII’ to ‘[Episode] IX’ was good for me.” Boyega portrayed Finn in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 2017’s The Last Jedi and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
Boyega Bids Farewell to Finn and Star Wars
In the same interview, Boyega discussed the experience of actors of color in the Star Wars films and TV shows, mainly the racist backlash he experienced from fans and the dearth of support he saw from the studio, Lucasfilm. He additionally expressed, however, that he felt that Disney was greater prepared for racism from fans by the point Moses Ingram confronted backlash for her role in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Boyega also said that significant progress had been made since he was cast as Finn. “When I started, it wasn’t really a conversation you could bring up,” he stated.
Boyega has mentioned that he does not need to be type-cast or lose his variety as an actor by repeatedly sticking to one type of role, which probably contributes to his decision to need to distance himself from a franchise. Instead of tackling blockbuster roles after finishing work on a Star Wars trilogy like Ford did, Boyega has selected to mostly do one-off roles with projects which are greater extreme in nature, such as Small Axe: Red, White, and Blue and The Woman King. So don’t expect Boyega to play Finn again anytime soon, though it is safe to anticipate Lucasfilm will keep the door open for him in case he changes his mind.
One thing that John Boyega has praised Lucasfilm for is their efforts to guard their expertise after the trilogy’s completion. While he was subject to an unexpected and ferocious campaign of on-line racism following the confirmation that his person – a renegade Stormtrooper – would be one of the leads of The Force Awakens, Disney and Lucasfilm appeared unprepared to deal with that trouble and did little to guard him from it, to the factor in which Boyega needed to leave social media for several years.
Moses Ingram, who had a substantial position in Obi-Wan Kenobi, had similarly been confronted with that kind of backlash recently, however this time Lucasfilm stepped in to publicly and genuinely stand by their actor and condemn racist attacks, such as a public declaration through Ewan McGregor. Boyega feels he made a difference by raising his concerns with Lucasfilm following his September 2020 statements, and he’s glad they listened:
