John Boyega Talks About Finn’s Adventures and Carrie Fisher in The Last Jedi
John Boyega has recently discussed what Finn is up to in The Last Jedi as well as Carrie Fisher’s farewell to Star Wars. As the countdown to the movie nears four months, the reality of seeing Fisher’s final performance in a Star Wars film is certainly sinking in, but so is the excitement that this film, while dark at times, will not be void of fun and adventure!
FINN’S ADVENTURES
While a lot of the focus and speculation for The Last Jedi continues to revolve around Snoke, Rey, Luke, and Kylo Ren, Finn’s status and role has remained a bit hazy until now. Speaking with IGN, Boyega talks about what Finn gets himself into this time, returning to his old stomping grounds, going undercover within The First Order. When asked how Finn must feel returning to the evil organization that molded him into a soldier from infancy, Boyega made a pretty interesting analogy:
“Well, it’s like imagine you work at McDonald’s. You push your manager into a chute compactor and then a year later you decide to go back dressed as one of the colleagues. It’s not the best situation,” said Boyega. “There’s a lot of chasing, there’s a mission that needs to be completed but that isn’t necessarily something that doesn’t come without a fight and it’s something that he’s gonna have to face for himself.”
Now I don’t envision Phasma and Hux placing orders for fries in this movie, so Finn’s situation will be a bit more dire. It is interesting that he said go back “a year later”. This could mean that while the movie does start where The Force Awakens left off, it could potentially flash forward, but our guess is it was just a time frame of reference for his analogy. We know that Finn will be joined by Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose, a Resistance Tech, in his journey.
Rose is not a warrior, but it sounds like she will find herself reaching a potential that has gone unnoticed until now. Director Rian Johnson did say several time that Rose has the biggest part out of all of the new characters, so she will have a big impact in the film. As we saw in the behind the scenes sizzle reel at D23, Rose will be joining Finn going undercover in the First Order. Based on other images we’ve seen it looks like these two will be together for most, if not all, of the movie. Boyega continues:
“But it was fun for me. I always wanted to go undercover. Star Wars undercover is different because you wear a hat and all of a sudden no one recognizes you. … I’d be thinking to myself walking in one of those scenes, isn’t anyone gonna go, ‘Wait, isn’t that Finn?’ Do you know what I mean? But such is the magic of Star Wars. It’s fun. It’s fun to do. It’s cool.”
The Last Jedi will have it’s share of darkness, but this plot device sounds like it will be of some level of importance, while providing us with a sense of levity and fun at the same time.
FISHER’S FAREWELL
In an interview with “Popcorn with Peter Travers”, Boyega assures us that Fisher’s final stamp on the franchise is going to be “amazing“. He revealed that Finn and Leia have many scenes together, and he shed light on the vibe between the two actors during filming and Fisher’s final mark on the franchise:
“We really enjoyed each other’s company,” Boyega told Travers of working with Fisher. “I was in Nigeria when we found out [about her death]. It was a strange, strange feeling. I felt like everyone in the cast went silent for a bit after that … [But] this movie, it sends her off in an amazing, amazing way.”
While this is farewell for Carrie Fisher, this still does not confirm that Leia is officially gone from the franchise. Kathleen Kennedy has yet to go as far as to make any confirmation of that sort, so until then we can’t guarantee they won’t recast her. We do know that they will not be bringing her back as a CGI iteration, confirmed by Kennedy.
We also recently heard that Billie Lourd, while speaking with Town and Country, thanks to screenrant, revealed a moment she had with her mother on the set of The Force Awakens. Fisher was astonished at how comfortable her daughter was in a setting that should be anything but comfortable, especially with it being her first film.
“The thing is, I was bizarrely comfortable on set. My mother would pull me aside and be like, ‘It’s weird that you’re so comfortable here. This is the most uncomfortable environment in the world. If you’re comfortable here, you should do this.”
We know that Lourd’s Lieutenant Connix will have a bigger role in The Last Jedi, and she certainly received her mother’s blessing after showcasing how the moment and atmosphere never got too big for her to handle, so we look forward to seeing her more in the saga!
The dark tones of the film’s promotion have taken center stage but we are consistently being reminded by Rian Johnson, now John Boyega, and the rest of the cast and crew that it will still be full of fun and adventure!
The darkest tone of all of course is that the closer we get to December 15th, the closer we get to saying goodbye to Carrie Fisher in Star Wars. There is nothing that can prepare us for that, but what we can assure ourselves with is that our Princess, our General, is going out on top, and that she was never lost on what Star Wars is all about in the end:
“It’s about family, and that’s what’s so powerful about it.”
Sound off in the comments below and be sure to head to the Cantina to discuss all of this! You can find me undercover on Twitter @JohnnyHoey and on our site’s podcast account @RBatSWNN to talk about all of these stories!
“For my all is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”
John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast
"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."
Too must dust in my office…ugh……its getting in my eyes….
Wait a Star Wars movie where a rebel goes undercover ! Amazing why did they never do that before.. oh wait they do it ever film
It is getting pretty old at this point.
You’d think the entire First Order would know traitor’s face by now. Not sure how he could go undercover like that, especially not even wearing a helmet.
For some people being on set is clearly always a chore, for others it’s heaven. Personally it takes a lot for me to not have a grin permanently plastered on my face whenever I’m on set. Billy could have a really great life in the business if she already feels like she’s at home, on some projects from day one it’s like meeting a huge long lost family you didn’t realize you had.
Hope Finn meets his end in 8 by Phasma, and then Luke cuts her in half. 2 worthless characters eliminated!
lol That would be a hell of a scene!
Well,, if Finn is only going to be a sidekick resistance fighter who infiltrates the First Order, then I tend to agree he has now become a minor supporting character. Shame on RJ !
I don’t think they have said anything to that effect.
In TESB the main characters went their separate ways, none were relegated to a minor role.
Super excited to see CARRIE / LEIA on screen again, as I honestly felt she got SHAFTED in TFA with not enough screen time. ZERO INTEREST in Rose. Complete WASTE of precious screentime in a film with far more compelling characters. I care about: Luke, Rey, Finn, Poe, Leia, Kylo, Snoke, and Hux. I care absolutely ZERO about “Finn’s new wackey pal” Rose. ZERO.
“ZERO INTEREST in Rose. Complete WASTE of precious screentime in a film with far more compelling characters.”
You’ve not seen the movie and you know very little about the Rose character. Sounds like an incredibly premature judgment to me.
Hey….let’s keep a little optimism here…..yeah? Seriously, lets hope Rose doesn’t become more of a “Weed” by the end of the movie.
Yup. A premature judgement on Rose. I am intrigued by her and the actress. And really, I do trust Rian Johnson. He is the only reason why I do have faith in TLJ as I do think he is a better director than Abrams.
My hope is that LF lets him direct the film he wants to direct. Which I do think they have. Whether or not it is good or bad, remains to be seen.
Sorry to hear you see it that way, Kent. I have a feeling Rose is going to be quite the scene stealer, plus she’ll give Finn some new energy to play off of. She’s adorable.
LOL, he said “SHAFTED”, where i come from that word has a very different meaning…sorry i just couldn’t resist 🙂
I kinda feel the same way about Rose. Maybe they’ll do something cool with her, I hope so. But everything I’ve seen so far makes it appear she’s there to be PC.
What have you seen so far, exactly? Have you read any of the script? have you seen any of the scenes she’s in? Another person who amazingly knows everything there is to know before everyone else.
My impression of her his based on what I saw of the actress during live panels, what they revealed about the character during Star Wars celebration, and the screenshots.
Also I don’t know anything beyond that, if you are implying that I do I don’t.
I don’t know what you get out of a few still images and a brief character description. And as for the actress — she’s an actress. The way she acts at panels is no indication of what her character is like or how she is written.
I got enough out of it to speculate and get an early impression of what I suspect the character might be like. Then I went on a Star Wars website and saw someone had a similar feeling so I posted a comment.
Then some crazy guy started acting like I knew everything about everything.
I’m just asking you to back up your assumptions with something substantive in light of the very small amount of information we’ve been given about the character. That’s not crazy. It’s called basic debate.
I’m not assuming anything! I had a *feeling* and posted a comment about it.
Then some crazy guy started trolling me and acting like I knew everything about everything.
You keep making these definitive judgements about Episode 8. So tell me — did you break into Lucasfilm or did they invite you to an advanced screening? Because it seems that you know everything there is to possibly know about it – that the Rose character is terrible. That Luke’s characterization is terrible. So I’m wondering what enabled you to know so much about a movie and its characters months before its release, when only a short teaser trailer has been released to the public.
He DID break into LUCASFILM, he READ the SCRIPT, and he KNOWS ALL.
/s
HE knows THAT there IS no VADER!!
I’m sure you felt the same way about Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo, and Hux before Force Awakens. And they won you over. Give Rose a chance.
@kentkaliber:disqus Weren’t you the one who gave me a hard time about being pre-judgemental about the Young Han Solo move not being an interesting story to tell? And here you go all cray cray on Rose 😛 Naughty boy!
I do agree with you, Kent on Leia. Really, most of the OT characters I felt weren’t handled well. Many of them, minus Luke, coasted off of what we know from ROTJ instead of actually explaining stuff.
Because, I am not above to Han and Leia separating and going back to their duties. That, I can see happen given the length of time. But Abrams and is mystery box shouldn’t hold back the audience at the very least learning a bit more.
Also, it didn’t help that I really didn’t care that much for Rey, Finn and Poe. Acting wise, fantastic. Character wise, meh. Kylo was decent.
As for Leia, though; I want us to see that savvy smart political mastermind/ seasoned fighter. Because, I know there is much more to Leia than her wielding a blaster. I argue that the main reason why the Rebel Alliance won, aside from the Empire’s speciest tendencies, was Leia’s ability to establish rapport and trust amongst individuals. Like any good politician should do. 😉
And given the fact that the NR is gone, I hope we get to see this aspect.
You haven’t seen yet. It would be weird if you cared about Rose.
“Complete WASTE of precious screentime ”
How the fuck would you know?
Oh Carrie…we will always miss you and love you! It will ironically be rewarding, exciting, and extremely sad to watch TLJ.
My hope is that Carrie Fisher is given some time to shine and love. Because, after Luke; Leia is my favorite of the trinity. I always loved her as a child and saw her as just a great character. And my love of Leia actually grew in Legends, seeing her tackle political situations. It supports my belief that SWs at its best was like a D&D game; where a group of people who come from different, skills and backgrounds, get together go on an adventure. They learn about themselves and others.
And Leia’s skill set in the political realm was invaluable to the Rebels. I especially reminded of this by reading Bloodline and was left disappointed by TFA( among many other things in that movie) with how they handled her. So yes, I really hope that Rian Johnson showcases just how competent Leia is.
She can do more than wield a blaster. And really, what a better way to showcase to the masses that politics and SWs can work by having a character who most people like go through it. Because, the biggest folly of the PT and politics was NEVER having any likable characters go through that process; often times showcasing the pedantic and one note aspects of politics.
it is why a show, like GoT is successful. Political decisions and how they affect the characters. That is what TLJ should do for Leia going forward. And to me, that would be a truly fitting role for Carrie Fisher’s last role(RIP) as Leia.