Actor John Boyega attacks Star wars fans for his career

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Actor John Boyega, who played Finn in the latest trilogy, has almost come around to this position. In 2020, Boyega voiced his frustrations with Disney for hyping up his character just to make him increasingly irrelevant over the course of the new trilogy. Boyega has since apparently realized that taking shots at Disney and Hollywood executives might be counterproductive for his film career, especially because the four films he appeared in since the end of the trilogy have been forgettable. In March 2023, he said he was “comfortable” with how Disney treated his character.

Having not appeared in a film since mid-2023, Boyega has instead decided to slam Star Wars fans. According to Boyega, Star Wars is “so white” and an “elite white” space. It is a “franchise that’s so white that a black person existing in [it] was something.” He complained that Star Wars fans didn’t want us to be “their heroes.” And don’t bother giving Boyega examples of black heroes in Star Wars who were beloved, because that is just tokenism and “telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough.”

The problem with Boyega’s diatribe is that it isn’t rooted in reality. What little anger there was at a black stormtrooper and its effect on the lore was muted even among the most devoted Star Wars nerds. Boyega’s character won over fans, whose only real complaint is that his character was made completely irrelevant to the trilogy in the second and third films. Fans wanted to see more of Boyega’s character and his arc of defecting from the bad guys to potentially become a Jedi hero.

Yes, it was actually Star Wars fans who wanted Boyega’s character to become a hero. Rian Johnson, who tanked the Star Wars brand with the disaster that was The Last Jedi, was the one who sidelined Boyega and nuked the value of the Star Wars brand in the process. Disney, which, for some bizarre reason, did not plan this trilogy at all and let two different directors take it in different directions, is the one who stopped Boyega’s character from being a hero.

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Why John, Why?

He's not wrong, even if the truth triggers some fragile people.

I think what fans are a little irked because
a) he described all star wars fandom as an "elite white space"
b) He blamed racists for attacking him when first trailers came out of for the Force awakens
c) He also described the few black actors in star wars as chocolate chips in cookie dough.
d) He also blamed star wars fans for wanting his role as a side-kick to a Daisey Ridley and Adam Driver when paradoxically in 2020 he blamed Disney for his casting and for the diminishment of his character in order to somehow appease millions of Chinese fans who preferred to see Driver and Ridley.

Being a star wars fan myself I disagree and will respond
a) Star wars fans come in all shades, there's fans who are Asian, Indian, Arab, hispanic and black
b) A number of fans who saw the trailer for Force Awakens were did not understand star wars lore and thought Disney stuffed up by casting somebody who didn't look like a clone (Boyega). this confusion was distorted as "Disney race swapped the original actor when infact in the new order troopers were recruits, once this became clear the confusion died down. While the optics weren't good, it was more ignorance > racism
c) totally disagree, Lando Calrissian and James Earl Jones played a prominent role in New Hope, ESB and ROJ. Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks were prominent in Clones wars, Revenge of the Sith and Phantom menace. Boyega himself was one of the big three in the sequels while you had Giancarlo Espisito and Carl Weathers being prominent in all three Mandalore seasons. Also the cookie dough included many many aliens so that's a little unfair.
d) the people responsible for shrinking Boyega in posters and making his character rubbish were not fans - Most mainstream fans wanted to see Finn rise to being a Jedi. those responsible were Ryan Johnson and JJ Abrahams.

I'm not in that the fandom, but I can't imagine Billy Dee Williams or James Earl Jones whining like this.

The whole bit about elitism doesn't really work for me as it's not like it's necessarily very expensive or exclusive to get super into. It started out as pop culture, it's not like Star Trek that had higher aims than entertainment.

^^^ Current theory in fandom is Boyega was approached by Disney executives to play a part in the New Disney movies with Daisey Ridley to reappraise his role as Finn. His millions from his first star wars films has largely dried up and he probably wants to ingratiate himself with Disney (after attacking them in 2020) in order to come back into the limelight as an A-lister. He misses the hype/celebrity he once had.

Both he and Ridley will never be able to secure multimillion dollar contracts outside of Disney so my guess he's now towing the Disney line. But even then, he never had to attack fans? after all he claims to be one himself, rather if he wanted to ingratiate himse;f why not just praise Ryan Johnson and JJ Abrahams? I think this might be punishment for John Boyega, attack the hardcore fans, make yourself vulnerable and atone for attacking Disney.

pffft whatever we were exited to have a storm trooper turn jedi

Fans are cut in two, most did want to Finn turn into a Jedi, but now Boyega has made things difficult by lashing out at fans who for the most part had his back. I think he's struck a deal with Disney. So for $$$ expect to hear more Reeeeeyyyyy!!

I don't remember his exact comments, the most recent ones, but I always felt that he got shafted by Disney for not using his character better in the sequel films. Him turning around and blaming the fans made me lose any sympathy for him.

^^^while there's always elements of Star wars fandom who don't like diversity, Boyega must know (he's a fan himself) that when he took of his stormtrooper helmet in Force Awakens, many fans initially thought it broke lore not factoring the clone army had been replaced by recruits like Finn. Once this was clearer, the initial shock gave way to high expectation Finn's character was going to be a Jedi. Of course Kathleen Kennedy had other ideas and created the template for a recurring theme in her version of the star wars universe and we all know the demise of Finn.

Finn's reaction towards fans is therefore disingenuous, in the ongoing war between fans and Disney, Boyega has now chosen the dark side. Literally like Aniken's betrayal. we are all disappointed.

I’m a long-time Star Wars fan and am not at all disappointed by his comments. There’s a lot of truth to what he says. Obviously, it’s not true of every fan. It’s more of a macro trend.

^^^ You agree with Boyega saying:

“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something. 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! 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.'”

I am saying this is disingenuous because
a) Star wars is science fiction, and science fiction has always been a white space
b) the era star wars was ascendent with the largest number of fans was 1976-1982. During this time there were no black faces on the media at all? Cosby show wouldn't start till 1984 and Michael Jackson was not yet famous.
c) Boyega declared for years he was an OG star wars fan from the time he was cast as Finn. till at least 2023 he was a paid subscriber to "Star wars theory", the largest fandom youtube channel with 3.5 million subscribers.
d) Boyega specifically targeted Disney at character being made a laughing stock. He acknowledged his fans and his popularity at both comicon and star wars celibrations.
e) the decisions Disney made had nothing to do with fans.

shaddap ,like I said I wanted to see him become a jedi. Maybe Rey who is more gifted becomes a Sith and Finn and Rey have a final showdown. Why he going after us? The writer made him "the friend"

I'm not in the star wars community, were people hung up that Finn was black or did they want him to be a jedi?

Well, not EVERY word, but quite a lot of it.

Right off top of my head, Michael Jackson's first solo album was released in 1979, and he was already wildly popular form his work in the Jackson 5, started in 1969. The Cosby Show may have aired in 84, but he was not the first black family on TV. Cosby show stands out as it was the first show where black people were portrayed as affluent. However, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and What's Happening, were all popular shows from the 70s, featuring main characters who were black. The Jeffersons were so popular, they made appearances in "All in the Family" (1971-1979). Richard Pryor was already so well-known by then that they wanted him in Superman III (1983) just for name recognition. Prince's first album was in 1978. BB King has been a chart-topping musician since the 1950s, as has Muddy Waters.

Nichelle Nichols has an incoming hail for you, and Eartha Kitt is laughing cattishly.

If sci-fi was a "white-space", then it's cos the media machine designed it to be that way - however, historically, the creators of sci-fi are usually more open-minded than that. Sci-fi didn't really start getting so toxic till it got mainstream popularity. Boyega makes some valid points.

Story time! The pilot for Star Trek had a female first officer, but the studio denied it. After the changeup, Roddenberry hired Nichols for the role of Uhura, but the studio tried to deny that, too. Roddenberry fought to not only keep her on, but to also give her speaking lines, which the studio also didn't want. If minorities and PoC have not traditionally been in sci-fi, it's not cos the creators didn't want them there - it's cos the men in power didn't want them seen. Sci-fi wasn't a "white space" - Hollywood was - and there's a whole fun story behind Hollywoodland and the racism connected to it, particularly in that era.

I'm sure Mary Shelley would have a few choice words on the matter, too...

Roddenberry and Arthur C.Clarke were exceptions. In contrast Tolkien, Lucas and Asimov and others had storylines set in a white spaces reflecting mainstream science fiction audiences at their time. Lucas only described Lando Calrissian as dark skinned in his original books (not black) and Mace windu didn't exist.

I am and it's the latter. I like John, he's very entertaining even after his current rant.

Tolkien didn’t write science fiction.