John Boyega Implies 'Star Wars' Fans Are Racist And Describes Franchise As "The Most Whitest, Elite Space"
John Boyega, who played Finn in the Disney Star Wars trilogy, recently decried Star Wars fans as racist and described the franchise as “the most whitest, elite space.”
Boyega made his comments in Apple TV+’s Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood documentary.
According to Entertainment Weekly, in the documentary, Boyega described Star Wars as “a franchise that’s so white that a black person existing in [it] was something.”
He went on to make it very clear that he also took issue with Star Wars fans, “You can always tell it's something when some Star Wars fans try to say, 'Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!' It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It's like, they just scattered that in there, bro!"
He also said moviegoers are unwilling to accept black actors in lead roles, “They're okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it's like, 'Oh my God, it's just a bit too much! They're pandering!'"
While he attacked the franchise for being white and elitist and implied its fans are racist, he described being cast in Star Wars as “a fundamental moment.”
He said, “We waited months for that. When that big call came in, that's that call that all those stars talk about that changed their life and stuff. It's like, 'That's it? That's the call!' It's such an attack on reality."
These comments come less than two years after he indicated he was open to returning to Star Wars.
He told TechRadar in 2023, “I'm open to all characters and scripts that are enjoyable, have a great cast attached, and a terrific director. So yeah, I'm open to all opportunities."
In the past Boyega has criticized the Star Wars franchise. Back in 2021, while doing a Q&A for his TV mini-series Small Axe, he compared working on Star Wars to a luxury jail.
He said, “Being in a big franchise, it’s kind of like luxury jail sometimes for an actor when you want to do something else.”
“Because remember, in a franchise you’re working on one character for many years, which can starve your other muscles,” he elaborated.
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In September 2020, he criticized how Disney handled his character of Finn. He told GQ, “You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] 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.”
“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam DriverYou knew 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,” he added. “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.”
Back in 2019, Boyega also indicated he had discussions on set about how poor the script writing for the Disney Star Wars films were.
Furthermore, in an interview with Hypebeast in 2019, he criticized The Last Jedi saying, “The Force Awakens I think was the beginning of something quite solid, The Last Jedi if I’m being honest I’d say that was feeling a bit iffy for me.”
He added, “I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of the choices in that and that’s something that spoke to Mark [Hamill] a lot about and we had conversations about it. And it was hard for all of us, because we were separated.”
Boyega also criticized The Rise of Skywalker as well saying, “I guess the original Star Wars films there was much more of a trio feel where it was essentially about Luke’s journey, but Han and Leia there was a strong dynamic, which I think, I don’t know how quickly we’re going to be able to establish that longterm dynamic with [Episode] Nine. But if it’s exploring that dynamic, then that would be cool.”
“I do feel even after three films still, we don’t know them as much as we got to know Han, Luke, Leia. And maybe that’s a great opportunity to get to know them a little bit more,” he added.
In that same interview with Hypebeast he claimed he was sent death threats after being cast in The Force Awakens, “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,’” explained Boyeoga. “Nobody else had that experience. But yet people are surprised that I’m this way. That’s my frustration.”
However, in November 2019, he shared on Twitter that he did not understand that many fans felt Disney and Lucasfilm did “Finn dirty.”
What do you make of Boyega’s recent comments?
He's a perpetual victim. Rather than blame Disney for the poor job they did, he shits on fans and then focuses entirely on his identity to shame them into giving him more work. Pathetic.
Did he play the annoying dude in those Star Wars movies? No, the other one. Not that one either, the other one.