In 2015, the newest Star Wars trilogy began with the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Many were excited to see John Boyega’s character of Finn, a stormtrooper who defected and joined the Resistance, including John Boyega himself. But over the next two films, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Finn’s character was pushed to the side in favor of focusing on Rey and Kylo Ren’s character arcs.
Boyega first expressed disillusionment with his place in the franchise after the release of “The Last Jedi,” where his character was shunted into an irrelevant side plot. In an interview with Hypebeast, he said that “The Last Jedi” was “a bit iffy” for him, and that he was disappointed that Finn, Rey, and Poe Dameron were not able to have the same dynamic in their trilogy compared to Luke Skywayker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa did in their own Star Wars trilogy.
After his hopes were dashed in “The Rise of Skywalker,” Boyega wound up fighting Reylos (people on Twitter who wish to see Rey and Kylo Ren in a romantic relationship) after a fan made a joke that Rey and Finn could be together after Kylo Ren died. Boyega pointed out that Rey and Kylo have spent most of their time in the three movies fighting each other, which upset Reylos. Boyega responded to the backlash with an Instagram video where he drives over, pushes away, and destroys negative tweets from Reylos.
Aside from Reylos, Boyega has dealt with a large amount of racist comments from Star Wars fans. After the release of the trailer for “The Force Awakens,” the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII was started, with trolls saying that having a Black stormtrooper was “white genocide.”
Boyega was asked how he felt about being a Black person in a Star Wars movie in an interview by The New York Times, Boyega said that “it’s Hollywood’s fault, for letting this get so far, that when a black person or a female, or something from a different cultural group is cast in a movie, we have to have debates as to whether they’re placed there just to meet a [quota].”
Boyega isn’t the only member of the Star Wars cast who has dealt with racism. Kelly Marie Tran faced so much harassment after her first appearance as Rose Tico in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” that she completely deleted all social media accounts. Tran later said that, “their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories.”
Boyega was recently interviewed by GQ and asked about his experience in the Star Wars franchise, and expressed disappointment with how he and other actors of color were treated. “You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver, you know what to do with these other people. But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f— 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.”
Boyega again touched on his experience with racism. “It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much more militant; it changes you…Nobody else in the cast had people saying they were going to boycott the movie because [they were in it]. Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying ‘Black this and black that and you shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper.’…But yet people are surprised that I’m this way. That’s my frustration.”
Boyega’s experience in the Star Wars movies is something that should not be repeated. Yet I have my doubts that Disney, LucasArts, or anyone in Hollywood will learn anything from this. I’m not sure how many disillusioned and traumatized actors of color it’s going to take before actors of color can be in a popular franchise without receiving harassment and poor treatment, but I hope, after Boyega’s interview, that it’s at least two fewer.
Categories: Opinion
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