John Boyega Talks His Badass Finn Vision for Star Wars & It Outshines the Finale We Got

John Boyega, the actor who played Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, has been open about his frustration with how Lucasfilm handled his character. Over the years, he’s spoken in interviews about how he felt Finn’s story started with big potential but ended up being pushed aside.

When Boyega first read the script for The Force Awakens in 2015, he thought Finn was going to have a much bigger role in the overall story.

In a recent talk with ScreenRant’s Liz Declan at Fan Expo Boston, he explained that he believed Finn was being set up to be Force-sensitive and could have even been a Jedi.

Boyega said, “I think I assumed he was Force-sensitive from The Force Awakens script or at least by the time I got to the end of The Force Awakens script. I thought they were planning dual Jedis. I actually thought that they would Obi-Wan and Darth Vader us a bit. That we would turn against each other or something along those lines.”

Back in 2020, during an interview with British GQ, Boyega also made it clear he didn’t like how his character was treated compared to others. He felt that Finn was marketed as an important lead in the trilogy but didn’t get the same depth or attention as characters like Rey and Kylo Ren. He 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. I’ll say it straight up.”

In the films that followed The Force Awakens, Finn’s role became smaller, and the hints about him being Force-sensitive weren’t explored until much later, and even then, they weren’t the focus. Boyega’s imagined version of the story would have made Finn a central figure, possibly even on a collision course with Rey as a rival Jedi.

The final movie in the trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, didn’t help matters. Directed by J.J. Abrams, it tried to wrap up both the sequel trilogy and the whole Skywalker saga. Many fans and critics felt it was crammed with too many storylines, new characters, and quick plot points, making it feel rushed.

One of the most talked-about issues was how Finn’s character arc felt abandoned. Another was the big twist about Rey being the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, which some viewers felt went against the message in The Last Jedi that anyone, regardless of family, could be a hero.

Boyega’s idea for Finn to become a Jedi would have reinforced that theme. Instead, the trilogy closed without fully delivering on the promise set up in the beginning, leaving both the actor and many fans feeling let down.

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