The One Way John Boyega Would Consider Returning To Star Wars
John Boyega has a lot of things in common with the standard Star Wars fan, not the least of which is that he's pretty vocally done with Star Wars following the latest trilogy. The British-Nigerian BAFTA winner starred as ex-stormtrooper-occasional comic relief-Force Awakens Jedi fakeout Finn across all three movies. Over that time, the actor seemingly grew more frustrated with the culture surrounding a galaxy far, far away with each entry.
By September of 2020, Boyega had become famously vocal about his distaste for the franchise, telling GQ, "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 ... 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." Combined with his social media comments earlier in the year stating that he's "moved on" and is "not into playing one role for too long," it's become pretty clear that Finn won't be popping up in the space opera's extended universe post Rise of Skywalker.
Or will he? A recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment has brought a potential Finn return back into the spotlight. All it would take is an abandoned script, a team of animators, and a production setup that would let him work from his living room.
John Boyega wants his old story back
It all goes back to when Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow was still set to helm Star Wars Episode IX, at that point titled Duel of the Fates. Trevorrow ended up leaving the project in September of 2017, but since then, details have steadily leaked out about his proposed take on the trilogy capper. Finn was set to play a substantially larger role in the story, completing his character arc as a First Order defector by leading a revolution with Rose, overthrowing the capital planet of Coruscant.
Speaking about the scrapped story, Boyega said "That would have been sick! That would have been dope, man, hands down." He went on to express interest in returning, should Disney ever feel the need to revisit Trevorrow's script — albeit in animated form. "I'm a Mandalorian fan, so Lucasfilm is doing very well with the TV shows," the actor told Yahoo! Entertainment. "An animated show would be dope! We could do it from home."
While Disney hasn't made any moves towards a reconstruction of Duel of the Fates, YouTube channel Mr. Sunday Movies got a head start on the project after the script leaked online in January of 2020. Their CGI recreation of the film, entitled "The Cancelled Star Wars Episode 9 Animated," has racked up over a million views, amplifying the ever-growing chorus of fans crying out for a do-over. Boyega, meanwhile, can next be seen in director Steve McQueen's anthology series Small Axe, premiering on Amazon Prime November 20.