Star Wars actor John Boyega discusses how the plot shifted under different directors for Episode 7 and 9 and his feelings about Collin Trevorrow’s unproduced “Duel of the Fates.”

Whether you like the Star Wars sequel trilogy under Kathleen Kennedy or not you must admit that the finale to that particular era was a letdown in multiple ways. Fans of The Last Jedi were thrown for a loop when Lucasfilm decided to walk back all the things that film did while the rest of the fanbase were still angry about what was done two years prior.

And it wasn’t just the fans who were unhappy, many of the actors who worked on the films felt very dissatisfied with how things ended. Of course series veterans like Mark Hamill were unhappy with how things played out, but also many newcomers to the series felt like the ending was lackluster; So much so that most seem to not want to return to a galaxy far, far away.



One of those actors was John Boyega, the actor who played Finn. A stormtrooper turned resistance fighter while potentially being force sensitive felt really interesting, but was ultimately abandoned in favor of focusing on the Rey-Kylo rivalry.



Recently while sitting down on the Happy, Sad, Confused Podcast the actor spoke about his experience with director J. J. Abrams returning to the series after being asked by Lucasfilm to come back and direct The Rise of Skywalker:

“It was a discussion from VII that was kind of brewing, because you didn’t know which way it was gonna go, right? And then VIII went in another direction. So I think with VIII going in another direction, when you’re bringing someone to the third, they have to kind of like appreciate what’s happened in VIII and then still try and make a narrative of it. And J. J. Abrams, I mean J. J. really wanted, Force Awakens is the movie that J. J. directed, he was kind of pinpoint plotting a trajectory. But obviously with the different creative differences in the middle and then getting to the third, it’s kind of like he still wanted to just force it in there, just squeeze it in there.“

Boyega continued:

“So that’s where you get the moment between Finn and Jannah, and Jannah asks him, ‘How do you know?’ And he just says, ‘It’s a feeling.’ He just had to get something in there that told you why there was a Stormtrooper who held his own long enough against a Sith, or Sith wannabe to a certain extent with Kylo. So it was interesting that when those talks were coming in the first stage. And I thought, obviously, you get the lightsaber, you start swinging, and defending, and I’m like, ‘Nah, yeah, yeah’, last time I checked, you can’t even just swing that you know a certain type of way. When Han was holding it briefly, what did he do? He held it to like get the locks off or something. It was like manual labor. But you’re just using it to defend and you know, you defend your friend, you must have something in you. But, who knows if maybe down the line, they have like a younger actor or whatever, and they try to expand on Finn. Who knows if we get that. We get to see like what what is it about this dude that made him so special.“



In the same interview John Boyega spoke about the now infamous Colin Trevorrow version of Episode IX Duel of the Fates and how he felt ‘heartbroken’ that version never saw the light of day:

“I can’t read that one because I’ll be heartbroken, because I had a sit down with Colin. I want to tell you that’s one of the best Star Wars meetings I’d ever had because it felt like two nerds that were like, ‘Yes, that’s what we want to see!’ And I saw the art, you know, Stormtrooper rebellion, I was like, that stuff was cold.“

“Hopefully, Lucasfilm can give him an opportunity down the line to maybe work on something else? Because I’m sure they would love to collaborate with him again in any capacity.“

If you want to know more about the canceled Duel of the Fates click here.

This interview shows how the actor felt about the whole production, with different people with different ideas all battling for creative control. John Boyega has since stated that he is not interested in returning to the series.

How do you feel Episode IX would have been done better? Should they have made Duel of the Fates instead of The Rise of Skywalker?

Sources: comicbook.com 1, comicbook.com 2