In a new interview with British GQ, John Boyega had some rather scathing things to say about Disney’s handling of his character Finn the the recent Star Wars trilogy. “[W]hat 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,” he said. His criticisms didn’t end with how his character was handled, but also Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose, Naomi Ackie’s Jannah and Oscar Isaac’s Poe. “Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” he said. “You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck 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 also discussed his recent viral video at a Black Lives Matter protest in London, and how race was an issue with his Star Wars experience.. “I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race,” he said. “Let’s just leave it like that. It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much more militant; it changes you. Because you realize, ‘I got given this opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me.’”
As if it wasn’t already obvious, Boyega has previously stated that he was done with the franchise. After posting an Instagram picture of himself on set of Steve McQueen’s upcoming anthology series, “Small Axe,” user @techsteveo commented, “Force Finn in action with Green lightsaber dressed in black is all I want from the next SW film!,” to which Boyega responded “lol no thank you. I’ve moved on [heart emoji].” When user @samkim_1 then commented, “really just got those Disney bucks and dipped [laugh crying emoji],” Boyega responded by saying, “nope. Not into playing one role for too long. I have more to offer than that. That’s all.” That wasn’t the first time that the actor had mentioned interest in leaving Star Wars behind him. Earlier this year, Boyega Tweeted about”Rise of Skywalker,” stating “Very fulfilling, some disappointments but yet not that big of a deal. Everyone has moved on…..”