Sequel trilogy star John Boyega shared his hope for future actors of color in the Star Wars franchise.
"Next time you cast [a Black actor in Star Wars], you bring them through the process," Boyega told Variety. "They need that support. They can’t get Boyega-ed."
Boyega's comments follow a September interview in which he criticized Disney's handling of actors of color in Star Wars, saying, "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... 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."
Shortly after that interview was released, Boyega revealed he had a very open and honest discussion with Disney. "There was a lot of explaining on their end in terms of the way they saw things," he said. "They gave me a chance also to explain what my experience was like. I'd hope that me being so open with my career, at this stage, would help the next man. The guy that wants to be the assistant DOP, the guy that wants to be a producer. I hope that the conversation is not such a taboo or elephant in the room now, because someone just came and said it."
Boyega made his Star Wars debut in 2015's The Force Awakens as FN-2187, a First Order stormtrooper who broke free of his mental conditioning during a savage attack on a village in Jakku. Realizing the First Order was evil, he enlisted the help of captured Resistance pilot Poe Dameron -- who gave him the name Finn --and the two escaped, only to be separated until the third act of the film, shortly before Finn was critically injured in a lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren. Finn's journey continued in The Last Jedi, albeit in the form of what many critics felt was more of a sidequest compared to his role in The Force Awakens.
In The Rise of Skywalker, Finn would return to playing a pivotal role, aiding Rey in her quest to locate the Sith Wayfinder needed to travel to Exegol. It was even revealed that Finn was Force-sensitive. However, in the original plans for Episode IX, he would have played an even larger role than that, leading a revolution of ex-stormtroopers.
Source: Variety