John Boyega Says ‘Star Wars’ Is ‘So White That a Black Person Existing in It’ Is a Big Deal - Toxic Fans Are ‘Okay With Us Playing the Friend’ but We ‘Cant Touch Their Heroes’

©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection

John Boyega called out “Star Wars” for being “so white” during an interview as part of the new Apple TV+ original documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” (via Entertainment Weekly). Boyega debuted as Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and reprised the character in “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker.” His role in the sequel trilogy led to online harassment from racist and toxic “Star Wars” fans upset with a Black actor playing a lead hero in the space franchise.

“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something,” Boyega said in the documentary. “You can always tell it’s something when some ‘Star Wars’ fans try to say, ‘Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!’ It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It’s like, they just scattered that in there, bro!”

“They’re okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just a bit too much! They’re pandering,'” the actor added, while also acknowledging that being cast in the franchise was a “fundamental moment” in his career.

Boyega first aired his grievances to GQ magazine in 2020 about Disney’s fumbling of diversity in his “Star Wars” trilogy. He said at the time: “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.”

“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” Boyega continued. “But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck 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…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. 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.”

Boyega later revealed to THR that a Disney executive reached out to him following his GQ interview. He said he had “a very honest, a very transparent conversation” with the Disney executive and added: “There was a lot of explaining on their end in terms of the way they saw things. They gave me a chance also to explain what my experience was like. I’d hope that me being so open with my career, at this stage, would help the next man, the guy that wants to be the assistant DOP, the guy that wants to be a producer. I hope that the conversation is not such a taboo or elephant in the room now, because someone just came and said it.”

“Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” is now available to stream on Apple TV+.

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[Snekposter]

This franchise is getting worse all the time.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

that's what you get when Kathleen Kennedy takes over.

 

[TowinKarz]

Remember how The Empire Strikes back was a bomb because people refused to watch a film that had a black character as a major ACT III participant?

Yeah, me neither.

 

[mlanguishi]

They'll just keep ''blaming the fans' at Disney I guess. I actually like Finn in the first one, and thought it would've been at least something for Rey to be a coal burner in the end too. All this does is remind everyone how each sequel got worse as they went.

 

[ShitLurker]

*smacks lips*

So we wuz

*bites on fried watermelon*

YEHDIIIIIIIS AND SHIIIIIIIET!

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

he's just pissed that it killed his career

not that he had one before Star Wars but this nigger's ego is huge for someone whose done basically nothing then got lucky enough to have the right skin color at the right time to get a huge paycheck for it.

I do however love that these fuckers can't stop attacking the hand that feeds them.

"No!! Our movies were great, awesome and emotional!! It appeals to a modern progressive and morally upstanding audience!!! It's those damn dirty racists and sexist fans who just refuse to pay money to see them that's the problem!!!"

"what? Make movies that the fans want to see? Hersey!! We know what they really need and want!! They will watch our progressive propaganda and like it or they will get nothing! They should thank us for the chance to support such noble people and such a righteous cause!!"

yah, these Hollywood types are so far up their own asses that hubris doesn't even start to describe it. We need new words to use when talking about such massive egotistical wankers.

 

[Boss Hawg]

He's just mad that Jar Jar Binks is a more beloved Black character than he was.

 

[indigoisviolet]

Who? Did he play an Ewok or something?

 

[Divine right to rule]

That Nigger was the least problem nu-Star Wars had.

If anything, the neckbeards were pissed that they completely fumbled the potential of a rogue stormtrooper by sending him on a road trip with a fat asian woman and making him a giant pussy.

 

[JohnnyG]

I'm sure casting directors will be lining up to sign an uppity negro who whines about screen time to their latest project.

I hope all the ShitLib executives and middle managers who YAAAASed over duhbersity-uber-alles see every one of these rants, until it finally sinks in that the more you gibs, the more they will demand & resent you.

See also: Amandala Steinberg, Haaz Sleiman, Rachel Ziggler, Bree Larson, Jodie Turner-Smith, etc.

Spoiler: Vidyas embedded

 

[Figger Nucker]

Mace Windu is a very interesting character and while not a huge Star Wars fan, I would watch a show about his back story? What's been established about him is WELL WRITTEN. It's not the skin color.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

As we all know, Disney tries way too hard to be progressive, which makes Boyega calling the new Star Wars racist a thousand times funnier to me. I don't want to see their efforts pay off.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

I've grown too old and too cynical with life experience to ever be fooled by any of this elicit white guilt bullshit.

 

[Sithis]

The funny thing is that while I personally would have complained about it, at the time a lot of Star wars retards actually wanted him to be more involved with the story, because it was clear the modern sequels had no fucking clue what they were trying to do. Rey was a very unlikeable character, so a lot of people actually did like Finn, and when the second slop movie came out I remember one of the first complaints I heard being Finns story getting wasted.

Plantation Nigga wants another shot at hollyweird though so he has to say the right things and generate the right controversy, pathetic.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

He's just mad that Jar Jar Binks is a more beloved Black character than he was.

And Mace Windu, and Lando. Lando sold toys. Mace Windu sold toys. Finn didn't.

I don't know if Boyega is complaining because he's just another talentless, weird-looking DEI hire with a chip on his shoulder, or literally too dumb to understand that his character was terribly written in a series of terrible movies. Probably both.

 

[not william stenchever]

I don't know what the fuck he's talking about either. Far as I could tell the so-called Fandom Menace was actually more interested in having Finn be the protagonist, what with the whole "stormtrooper breaking his conditioning" backstory.

He should be bitching about the AWFLs that turned him from a potentially interesting character into a dancing monkey instead of the fans. The fans seeing the trailer didn't care about a stormtrooper being black, they were excited for the perspective of a deserting stormtrooper.

 

[Safir]

John Boyega

documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood”

Why is he in it then?

 

[mlanguishi]

The funny thing is that while I personally would have complained about it, at the time a lot of Star wars retards actually wanted him to be more involved with the story, because it was clear the modern sequels had no fucking clue what they were trying to do. Rey was a very unlikeable character, so a lot of people actually did like Finn, and when the second slop movie came out I remember one of the first complaints I heard being Finns story getting wasted.

It sucks so bad. The first 15 minutes of TFA are setting it up to be Poe/Finn/Rey story throughout, another Han/Leia/Luke kind of thing. Would've been so much better. They were still introducing side characters in the last one, Poe's ex and all that crap. And Hux could've been ok too, but that stupid as 'switcheroo' they did with him and NO payoff either. Oh well, the days of really thinking about Star Wars and going 'hey, there's some neat ideas in this' are long gone.

 

[AllieKat]

Uppity British nigger bitches, and more news at 11

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Everyone liked Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu. No one cared they were black. Sam Jackson specifically asked for Mace Windu's lightsaber to be purple so he could see himself in giant battle scenes.

Sorry, John: the reason no one likes you is because the movies sucked. I don't even think Boyega is a bad actor, but the new Star Wars films were shit and Boyega is trying too goddamn hard to attach himself to the franchise and do PR for it. If he realized that he got fucked with a shit role so Kathleen Kennedy could wear a "The Force is Female" T-shirt, he'd have a very different perspective.