Disney sidelined my Star Wars character
Boyega slams marketing of key black hero
JOHN Boyega has hit out at Disney for marketing his character in Star Wars as important and then pushing him aside.
The Londoner played Finn, the franchise’s first black Stormtrooper, in The Force Awakens, which kicked off a new trilogy in 2015.
However, his screen time diminished in sequels The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
He told British 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.”
John, 28, claimed Disney, which distributes Star Wars, gave more “nuance” to his co-stars and suggested the company did not know how to treat him as a black actor.
He said: “When it came to
Kelly Marie Tran [who played Rose Tico and has Vietnamese heritage],
STAR TURN John in Force Awakens when it came to John Boyega, you know f*** all. “They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest.” John was involved in June’s Black Lives Matter protests in London. He said his Star Wars experience and online abuse he got made him more “militant” about racial inequality. He added: “You realise, ‘I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me’. Nobody else had people saying they were going to boycott the movie because [they were in it].
“Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, ‘ black this’ and ‘ black that’ and ‘ you u shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper’.”
The Mirror has approached Disney y for a comment.
Star Wars spin- off The e Mandalorian will return for a second series on October 30. 0.
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