John Boyega says Star Wars sidelined him.

[arista]

[Star Wars actor John Boyega has accused
Disney of sidelining his character after
marketing him as an important figure,
and says his experience of the series
was different as a black actor.
The 28-year-old played Finn,
the first black Stormtrooper, in the latest trilogy,
which started with The Force Awakens in 2015.
Appearing alongside Daisy Ridley's Rey and
Adam Driver's villainous Kylo Ren,
Boyega's time on screen diminished in sequel
The Last Jedi in 2017 and finale
The Rise Of Skywalker in 2019.]

[In an interview with British GQ,
Boyega has claimed Disney gave more
nuance to his Star Wars co-stars and that
they did not know how to treat a black character.
"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,"
he said. "It's not good. I'll say it straight up."
The actor, who was born in Peckham, south London,
continued: "Like, you guys knew what to do
with Daisy Ridley, you knew what
to do with Adam Driver.]


https://news.sky.com/story/john-boyega-claims-star-wars-character-was-sidelined-because-of-race-12061696


Maybe Disney does not like his Protesting
he did in London in June?
Or they did not need him ?

[Crimson Dynamo]

He is terrible actor. Trying to hide this

[Jordan.]

I mean he's not wrong but I don't think had a clue what to do with any of those characters beyond the first film they put out.

[Oliver_W]

Too many chiefs, not enough people who knew what they were doing.

The trilogy needed a "Lucas Figure", someone who was in charge of all three movies and who mapped it out before the first script was finished. The written-by-committee style couldn't have been more obvious, sometimes a "Story Group" just isn't needed.

[Oliver_W]

character, not a skin colour. Finn could have been any race, so they didn't need to treat the handling of his character as anything but a rebelling Stormtrooper.

[UserSince2005]

the biggest wah wah baby there ever was, he make me ashamed to be black.

[James]

Lucasfilm and Disney tied themselves up in knots. They thought they were being progressive by having, not only a female lead character in Star Wars, but one that is independent and doesn't need assistance from other male characters (other than Han Solo being a bit of a mentor in the first one).

However that meant that Finn and Poe didn't get all that much to do that was significant.

[Toy Soldier]

I mean I get what he's saying but, also, the entire trilogy is hot garbage so I think it's a stretch to say that Finn was the only character that was used badly. I'd be impressed if he could point to a character that was used well.

[Shaun]

I don't think he said it was just Finn tbf

[Oliver_W]

Lucasfilm and Disney tied themselves up in knots. They thought they were being progressive by having, not only a female lead character in Star Wars, but one that is independent and doesn't need assistance from other male characters (other than Han Solo being a bit of a mentor in the first one).

However that meant that Finn and Poe didn't get all that much to do that was significant.

I mean I get what he's saying but, also, the entire trilogy is hot garbage so I think it's a stretch to say that Finn was the only character that was used badly. I'd be impressed if he could point to a character that was used well.
True.

I hate the term "Mary Sue" but there really is little else that can be used to describe Rey :joker: She was such a boring character. There's nothing inspirational about a character who doesn't really need to work for anything.

[Toy Soldier]

True.

I hate the term "Mary Sue" but there really is little else that can be used to describe Rey :joker: She was such a boring character. There's nothing inspirational about a character who doesn't really need to work for anything.

I don't think there's a real problem with the term Mary Sue so long as it isn't gendered; there are plenty of examples (a lot more, actually) of male Mary Sue's. And you're right, they are just boring, whether it's because they're overpowered and there's no threat or because they're just bland with no character flaws. It's not realistic, is one of the main things. I mean Luke Skywalker (and his dad, it turned out in the prequels) were whiney little ****ers but that at least made them more realistic :joker:.

Physical "Mary Suism" was literally the reason they introduced Kryptonite for Supes as a deus-ex machina... and he also became an infinitely more interesting character when they introduced the Injustice-type stuff that shows that he is flawed and actually NOT un-corruptable. Another example is Thor in Thor 2 being painfully boring compared to Ragnarok and IW/EG, simply because he's gone off the rails a bit and that's just more fun. No one wants a perfect character.

Though I also think one of the main problems with the SW Sequel Trilogy is that they blatantly started pushing for a cash-in before they actually had a solid story and character direction locked in. They made it up as they went along, and it shows... all of the characters are shallow because they didn't bother properly developing them in pre-production.

[Marsh.]

Maybe Disney does not like his Protesting
he did in London in June?
Or they did not need him ?

They sidelined him in a trilogy that ended last year based on something he did 3 months ago?

[Oliver_W]

I don't think there's a real problem with the term Mary Sue so long as it isn't gendered; there are plenty of examples (a lot more, actually) of male Mary Sue's. And you're right, they are just boring, whether it's because they're overpowered and there's no threat or because they're just bland with no character flaws. It's not realistic, is one of the main things. I mean Luke Skywalker (and his dad, it turned out in the prequels) were whiney little ****ers but that at least made them more realistic :joker:.

Physical "Mary Suism" was literally the reason they introduced Kryptonite for Supes as a deus-ex machina... and he also became an infinitely more interesting character when they introduced the Injustice-type stuff that shows that he is flawed and actually NOT un-corruptable. Another example is Thor in Thor 2 being painfully boring compared to Ragnarok and IW/EG, simply because he's gone off the rails a bit and that's just more fun. No one wants a perfect character.

Though I also think one of the main problems with the SW Sequel Trilogy is that they blatantly started pushing for a cash-in before they actually had a solid story and character direction locked in. They made it up as they went along, and it shows... all of the characters are shallow because they didn't bother properly developing them in pre-production.
I get that calling characters Mary Sue can be perfectly valid, but it makes me feel like "That Internet Guy" or a youtuber my brother might watch :joker: but there's a reason that no-one calls Princess Leia or Padme a Mary Sue, despite them both being decent fighters and great leaders, and it ain't because geeks hate women :joker:

With Superman I only ever liked him in Tomasi's comics when he was a family man, married to Lois Lane and they had Jon (Superboy) together. I don't know much about the Injustice game/s but the comics are by Tom Taylor, he's awesome.

I can't remember a single thing that happened in Thor 2 :joker: I think my brain just sort of shut down while watching it...

Luke and Anakin were whinging little sods, but they also had struggles and had to work to achieve what they did.

[Toy Soldier]

I don't know much about the Injustice game/s but the comics are by Tom Taylor, he's awesome.


I don't know the comics but in the games it's basically that Joker has tricked Superman into accidentally killing Lois, which also set of a bomb that destroyed Metropolis. Clark loses his **** and kills the Joker, then decides that killing off criminals before they do anything like that is the way to go and goes on a killing spree, then ultimately goes full Kim Jong and decides that the best thing for the world/humanity is for it just to be run by him as humans can't be trusted to do the right thing.

Batman, Green Arrow, Supergirl etc. don't like that very much.

They all fight and stuff.

I think Supes might also be in some sort of BDSM relationship with Wonder Woman :think:. I dunno it was a while ago.


I can't remember a single thing that happened in Thor 2 :joker: I think my brain just sort of shut down while watching it...


It's easily one of the blandest MCU movies. Possibly even THE blandest. I used to rank Iron Man 3 as the most boring but on rewatches I think Thor 2 actually takes the crown. Even Thor 1 has a goofy charm that 2 lacks. They saved the character by taking a whole new direction in Ragnarok, I don't think we'd be having a Thor 4 if Thor 3 had been more of the same, I suspect the character would have bowed out at Endgame, at least for solo movies.

[Tom4784]

Boyega's right, the marketing for The Force Awakens suggested that he would be the main character and a Jedi and he became increasingly sidelined in the other films, there's also the awkward but telling marketing in China that minimised his character entirely, which makes me wonder if the chinese market had any influence on Disney sidelining the character.

I think there's also a factor that the new trilogy was badly handled and that they obviously threw out all their plans after the mixed reception to Last Jedi. I think I read somewhere that Finn was supposed to have force powers by the end of the trilogy but that never happened.

As for Rey, I don't think she was a Mary Sue and I don't think people would ever accuse her of that if she was a male character. She wasn't a great character in the end since Disney retconned her story completely to try to sate the worst kind of fans instead of sticking to their guns.

[arista]

[Jo Malone apologises to John Boyega for cutting him out of Chinese ad
Perfume brand admits reshooting commercial without
Star Wars actor was ‘misstep’]


https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/13/jo-malone-apologises-to-john-boyega-for-cutting-him-out-of-chinese-ad