John Boyega on Finn, fire and the Force in Star Wars: The Last Jedi — SciFiNow Magazine #139 [ I transcribed this myself so please credit + link back to me if you’re sharing/quoting anything from this piece. ]



John Boyega was arguably the break-out star of The Force Awakens, winning praise for his charming performance. but, with Finn in a bad way at the end of the previous film, is he still going to be the same charming reluctant rebel that we fell in love with?



How would you describe Finn’s role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Finn got a back injury [in The Force Awakens] and the Resistance is at its lowest point. However, Finn has chosen to do a crazy mission and Poe has trusted him to do service for the cause. That’s why he feels like he has to go off with Rose [Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran] and BB-8. How does The Force Awakens’ director JJ Abrams compare to The Last Jedi’s director Rian Johnson?

It was very evident what JJ was doing in terms of trying to make sure that VII didn’t feel too alien to what fans were used to… Rian has been given the challenge to make this story different. He’s been asked to make it unique and expand the Star Wars universe. They are both very collaborative as directors and they are articulate, smart dudes. As a fan, did you have any worries when it came to The Last Jedi?

It would be a concern to me if Star Wars played it safe to the point where the new generation didn’t get to have their Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader moment, or a shocking reveal. I feel like that’s part of the culture of Star Wars and Rian’s in line with that… I speak to a lot of Star Wars fans. A lot of them are friends, but everyone says to me: ‘Okay, Rey is the Jedi. Eventually, she is going to defeat Kylo Ren. Finn is a Rebel. Together, they are going to win and they are all going to have a nice day.’ With that in mind, I feel like we have to be super careful to not fall into the line of what the other films have done. We have to take a risk, and I really do believe that that is what Rian is doing.