Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came under fire for a lot of different reasons, but the way the movie treated characters like Finn and Kelly Marie Tran's Rose was particularly problematic. There was no pay off to the former's story arc, while the latter was essentially given little more than a cameo role, presumably in response to some vocal Star Wars fans not liking her.
In a lengthy, candid interview with GQ, John Boyega defended director J.J. Abrams, but acknowledged that his character was pushed to one side despite being billed as a key part of the franchise.
"Everybody needs to leave my boy alone," the actor said. "He wasn’t even supposed to come back and try to save your shit. You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] 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. I’ll say it straight up."
"Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver," Boyega continued. "You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f**k all. So what do you want me to say?"
"What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience.' I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience," he openly admitted. "They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything."
It's definitely shocking to hear Boyega speak this openly about his time working on the Star Wars franchise, but nothing he's saying is incorrect, and there's no denying that the diverse characters in this new trilogy were treated poorly by Disney and Lucasfilm. However, an argument could be made that was the fault of the filmmakers to a large degree, and not just the studio in charge.
What do you guys think?