John Boyega went from thinking he wouldn’t have a career after fighting racism to a Golden Globe Winner
I’ve talked on what happened with John Boyega andDisney Lucasfilm a lot. Maybe because even for myself, I’m not over it either, but because I want to make sure everyone knows this story. They know what happened. It’s why I’ve basically dedicated most of my Tumblr, YouTubeChannel, and Twitter to talking about this.
This may be the last time though just because unless more comes out publicly, I think there’s not much else I can say on this and I’d like to start covering what happening with Ray Fisherat Warner Bros
But one last time, let me explain what happened with John Boyega and how a this Golden Globe win something so earned and proof that being a good man who fights for what’s right and a great actor who never stops, is what has given John the career he deserves.
Back in 2014, it was announced that John Boyega would be the male lead of the Sequel Trilogy
John Boyega had been announced as the male lead of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy after the IP had been purchased by Disney. The casting process was a hard one for John Boyega since Disney Lucasfilm wanted to cast a white actor, but JJ Abrams had fought against Disney Lucasfilm and after 8 different auditions, John was finally cast as Finn. A big part of what got John the role, beyond his powerhouse acting chops and JJ Abrams fighting for him, was that his chemistry test with Daisy Ridley, the actress that been chosen to pay Rey, had been the only one that Daisy herself had liked. Daisy, being cast after her first audition. Meanwhile Adam Driver, who would go on to play the sequel trilogy’s antagonist had been hand picked by Kathleen Kennedy.
Some time later, the marketing for the first film in the Sequel Trilogy, The Force Awakens (2015) had started and well the internet reacted as well as you’d think it would back in the mid 2010’s
Despite the racial backlash and a call to boycott, The Force Awakens broke all box office records and to this day, still holds the record for highest grossing film in North America of all time.
Sadly though, Disney Lucasfilm chose to go a different direction…a direction that sidelined him.
The TLDR being he was Black and they didn’t want a Black male lead.
For more detailed breakdowns, here are two different videos I made on the subject.
This one is 40 mins and its a detailed breakdown of John Boyega’s experiences throughout the sequels.
But if you want a shorter breakdown that just covers why he was sidelined and how it damaged his character, here’s a shorter 23 min video
From John Boyega’s own words, Disney Lucasfilm based his experience in Star Wars off of his race and at the time of the second film in the ST, The Last Jedi (2017) it was a re-ordered character hierarchy that saw John now pushed into a supporting character role.
The trilogy ended, with a wet flop, as we all know. Months of re-shoots re-writes from Disney Lucasfilm had turned the final film, The Rise of Skywalker (2019) into a studio mess that saw John Boyega once again on the short end of the stick.
In the next following months, John Boyega would speak out against many of the creative choices made in the sequels, something that got him LOTS of backlash by angry Star Wars fans that were calling for his career to be over and him to be canceled. John responded with a video pushing back against them.
Then later in 2020, John Boyega went out to take a stand against Police brutality and systematic racism during the Black Lives Matter Protests
John would later in the year of 2020 go on to speak with GQ and speak out against Disney Lucasfilm’s racist treatment of not just him, but of how badly they treated fellow co-stars Kelly Marie Tran, Naomi Ackie, and Oscar Isaac. Further proving that it was the lives of others, other POC of color like himself, that John was fighting for.
It was during all this that John Boyega had lamented that his career could likely be over after all this. He had taken a stand against racism on two fronts, Disney, who own a good deal of the entertainment industry, and police brutality. For a Black man in the film industry, this fear is honestly a real one.
But fate has a funny way of rewarding the noble and kind hearted folks of the world. Not always, we all know that’s not always the case, but for once, it was. John Boyega didn’t lose his career. In fact, many saw his fighting spirit and saw his bravery, saw that he wasn’t going to lay down and let anyone suffer if he could fight.
The year is 2021 now and John Boyega has won the Golden Globe for his role in Small Axe, a story that ironically touches on racism and police corruption.
Its been an interesting journey for John Boyega. From a kid being able to live his dreams and be cast in Star Wars to a man fighting against racial injustice both in the world and in the entertainment industry, John’s story is one for history books of our generation.
Whatever future John Boyega has in this world, I truly wish him the best and I’m thankful that someone like him exists to be a role model for so many people, regardless of where they come from or what they look like.
“Sometimes you just need to be mad. You need to lay down what it is that’s on your mind. Sometimes you don’t have enough time to play the game.”
—John Boyega born March 17, 1992 in London, England
Happy birthday, John! You’ve been on your grown man ish for a minute now, but 30isn’t a milestone for nothing. You’ve been inspirational in not just how you’ve used your star power to encourage and help others, but in keeping it real about how all that glitters has not been gold and that at a certain point, you weren’t going to skin and grin just to make others feel comfortable.
Whatever else your life and career holds for you, you’ve earned it, many times over. Here’s to the next 30 years being even better than those that came before them – you’ve earned it.
[Image Description: Digital graphic of John Boyega in three of his most iconic roles. The first image shows him as Finn, from The Force Awakens, holding Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber. The middle image is of John portraying Moses from Attack the Block. He faces forward, his hoodie up and hat on. The final image is of John as Jake Pentacost in Pacific Rim Uprising. He wears an unbuttoned shirt with a “Pentacost” name bar over a white T-shirt. The graphic scrolls slowly from left to right over each character and loops back to the beginning. /end ID]
I know John said he doesn’t want to do Disney Plus and he’s low-key done with Star Wars in general but I M A G I N E Finn in the hands of actual competent storytellers pls
Without further delay, here’s my video essay on Finn’s BROKEN Character Arc in The Rise of Skywalker. I think Finn is one of the most interesting characters in the ST and I wanted to explore his final story
I wanted to speak on the things I liked, the things I didn’t like and what almost was Finn’s original role in Episode IX/The Rise of Skywalker
Out of the entire sequel trilogy, Finn was the most original aspect of it and the nuanced portrayal of him by John Boyega has made him my favorite character in the trilogy. John Boyega is honestly one of the best actors working today and with how much he’s fought for representation in the entertainment industry and his work with supporting Black Lives matter, I have nothing but respect for the man.
hello i am once again mad about the way that finn was treated in the star wars movies and how john boyega was so excited to be apart of the star wars universe just to have it ruined for him
This is a really fascinating video on Meghan Markle, colorism, tokenism, and the sad fact that tokens in the real world and in media find themselves being used as shields from criticism about racism while simultaneously being subjected to racist abuse. There’s an entire spot in here revolving around John Boyega and Star Wars. Game of Thrones, Wandavision, Sex and the City, and Bridgerton get a mention too.
“Whether the Black character is dying first or their story is proved secondary tokenism is a way of glossing over the choice not to tell a story that meaningfully challenges a white-centric point of view.”
Sam has not had the development that I thought he was going to get by now. Im holding out hope that this was by design, and that the final two episodes will be Sam-centric because as of now, Sam has definitely taken a back seat to Bucky, Zemo, and even Walker. Sam is supposedly the main character and yet as of episode 4, he has stayed mainly calm and composed this entire time. We’ve already seen this Sam. We have seen this Sam in the past few movies. I want to see something more from the man. As of now, we have seen Bucky at his weakest, we have seen his anger, his pain, his struggles…that what makes him so engaging to watch. That what makes any character engaging. That is what makes them relatable. Why haven’t we seen that with Sam yet? What exactly makes Sam tick? What gets him sad? Who is this man? I already know Sam a nice guy who is an extremely loyal friend. I want more. Why does he feel like a side kick to Bucky? Even some of the camera angles and character placements have Sam nearly off screen or behind Bucky. Why isnt there more scenes of Sam fighting versus all the other characters? His fight scenes have been extremely limited in comparison to Bucky and that really freaking problematic.
Are we going to flash back to Sam past like Bucky, or are we going to get cool calm and collected Sam all the way through? Will Sam mentioned his past partner at all, or will he just end up being the guy who calms down Bucky? Sam is way too much of a passive character for my liking. Things are happening around him and he barely gives his input. This is sidekick behavior. Man do I want him to really put his foot down, have conviction, have some passion, show some real emotions rather than just looking worried all the time. And I don’t mean him act out of character since he is generally a level headed guy. But even level headed characters have their buttons, have their limits, and if you are the main character than your character should be facing those limits because otherwise, the story will be very uninteresting because the character never changes. I mean, we just witness Bucky really breaking down and that is amazing and makes you feel for him. Sam has yet to move me on anything and we have yet to get inside his head. Walker has shown more sides of him than Sam! I’m worried because I expressed similar discomfort with Finn character in star wars the last Jedi and they ended up disappointing me big time with the last movie. They go with introducing a black character with a lot of potential but as the story goes on, his character never truly develops or given the screen time to just be them. Im going to be really peeved if the black character is once again, the most misused character in the god dang series. I’m going to hold out hope for the last 2 episodes. Please do not disappoint.
Also, it doesn’t make sense that Sam disregarded the deaths of innocent people and viewed Karli as a kid. I had a hard time wrapping my head around his logic. If the girl is okay with bombing innocent people, she is obviously too far gone to reason with. Yet Sam wanted to give her a chance to talk it out. Doesnt make any sense. They shouldnt have had her bombing buildings full of people if they wanted to go this route.
It’s happening again. Disney is sidelining a black main character in his own narrative (we were promised the Sam & Bucky show yet what we’re getting is the Bucky/Zemo/John Walker show with the white male characters getting all the emotional depth and intereating storylines while Sam isn’t getting any new development at all)
People are complaining about WB being racist but Disney is exactly the same and has obviously not changed at all since the John Boyega/Finn fiasco
