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John Boyega says non-white actors 'pushed to the side' in Star Wars by Disney

O-N-E

Member
There's an element of racism to it in the classic tokenism sense. It was just a checklist without any significant nuance.

  • Black dude - Check
  • Asian lady - Check
  • Latino dude - Check
  • Random lesbian encounter - Check
 

Gp1

Member
Lets be sincere here.
Phasma and Finn characters were butchered by The Last Jedi. Gwendoline Christie was flying high in Game of Thrones at that time.
They simply didn't know were to put those characters. I believe that JJ had a plan to make Finn at least a force sensitive in some kind of duality with Rey and conflicting Kilo. Phasma would serve as his archenemy. Ryan fucked up on both ends.

I really don't know why they relegated Finn to a side character. But they wasted Christie and Max von Sydow with sub-minute appearances too, so...
 
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teezzy

Banned
"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."

Hey, as an actor you can add all the nuance you'd like to your character.

How many awful scripts turned into great movies based upon strong performances alone? I don't hate him, but dude is acting like a buster.
 
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GAMETA

Banned
I really liked Finn, to me he was indeed underused, specially in VIII where he becomes the complete side character.

He should've become a Jedi under Leia and Rey under Luke or vice versa.
 

oagboghi2

Member
Yeah I like John but this is silly.

No one was written with nuance. All the characters were shallow and boring. Adam Driver is just, such a damn good actor he can make you believe that stupid script is "nuanced".

John, your black. Daisy is a woman. Guess who won the oppression awards and got the lead role?

Maybe if the script was written at a different time or the cultural axis was headed in a different direction, you would be the lead. Oh well. If you are depending on these cultural moments to get you roles, than aren't you always taking a chance.
 

EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.1
There’s a lineage of great great side characters in Star Wars ( Mace Windu, Han etc.) the next Star Wars could have Jon be a main character
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Agreed. After TFA, I was sure Finn was not only a lead character with Ray, but also convinced he would be trained in the force, but he was wasted in VIII and criminally underused in IX.

However, I don't think Disney did this on purpose because John is black and I don't think his character story arc would have changed if Finn was white.
It's because any time a person of color feels wronged or if they fail, they blame racism. As opposed to the fact that there might be other reasons involved, or that maybe they just suck, or failed.
 
As a TLJ fan, I do think Finn's arc could've hit harder had the elevator scene and alternate Phasma scene was used; but it was assumed that the next movie would complete his arc. So with TROS being the final result, it's more than understandable to use TLJ as ground zero for said untrajectory.

But like holy shit TROS fucked everyone to the side, and from the looks of it here it sounds less like a JJ thing and more like executive meddling.

I mean how the fuck to you go from this:

Finn-Star-Wars-Duel-of-Fates-Resistance-concept-art.jpg


To this:

3644955-024.png


Jfc this stupid movie. Finn was done dirty.
 

Kenpachii

Member
As a TLJ fan, I do think Finn's arc could've hit harder had the elevator scene and alternate Phasma scene was used; but it was assumed that the next movie would complete his arc. So with TROS being the final result, it's more than understandable to use TLJ as ground zero for said untrajectory.

But like holy shit TROS fucked everyone to the side, and from the looks of it here it sounds less like a JJ thing and more like executive meddling.

I mean how the fuck to you go from this:

Finn-Star-Wars-Duel-of-Fates-Resistance-concept-art.jpg


To this:

3644955-024.png


Jfc this stupid movie. Finn was done dirty.

So how would u make his char more appealing? dude has no charisma. His whole introducting is acting like a bitch, then tries to become a bootleg han solo without charisma that comes with him, the indian looking guy was more han solo then he was. Then u had the real han solo in the movie, so he's like the 3rd han solo? Yea i wonder why he got ditched.

Luke chick and darth vader guy where the light and dark / good vs bad obviously they would get the main attention as its where the whole movie series is centered about.

Han solo was a flux perfect casted, super charming even overtook luke and absolutely a badass because of multiple scenes. Boyega who?.

Anything han solo in other movies touched became gold because he's just simple a great actor with lots of charisma, boyega did a few movies do you still remember where he was in? i don't.

Should they have forced to make the movie around a character that is simple not interesting? either should have made him a decendend of luke skywalker and ditched the chick or made him darth vaders son instead of that other little bitch but that also didn't go through. He was always going to get side lined.
 
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#Phonepunk#

Banned
As a TLJ fan, I do think Finn's arc could've hit harder had the elevator scene and alternate Phasma scene was used; but it was assumed that the next movie would complete his arc. So with TROS being the final result, it's more than understandable to use TLJ as ground zero for said untrajectory.
TLJ fucked his character turned him into a joke from the first scene. quit blaming TROS for Rian's fuckups. dude was handed some prime ingredients and proceeded to smear them on the wall.

honestly Rian could have come up with a story. Finn goes off to find out where he is from? Finn and Poe have a buddy cop adventure (like everyone in the world wanted)? something interesting and character building?

instead he came up with "Finn only cares about Rey like he is some idiot puppy also him giving his life to defeat the new Sith Lord was a lie, still a coward" and you want to blame JJ lol.
 
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The Skull

Member
He got absolutely shafted. Don't promote a character with tons of marketing material with a light-saber, only to become an afterthought. He was done dirty.
 

Blond

Banned
For sure. Boyega comes across to me like one of those black guys who didn't find out he was "oppressed" until social media told him that he was, and then he went full blast with it.

So many people I went to high school with and knew for a while after high school turned into those types. Grew up more wealthy than most whites in the area, had a great childhood and life, but then by 30+ years old, discovered they were actually victims of racism all along! They just didn't know it until now!

Yeeeeep.

My parents are buying into this and are angry that they "taught me that I could be anything if I got my life together and work hard that you could do anything because that's not true"

At 31 I've made more money than both of them, traveled more than they ever could and experiencing the life they always wanted for me but yet that's not good enough because "some white boy is living the life they could've been yours." And when I say "Yeah, but I see Black people who live better than me so what do you say to them?"

There's no winning with this new mindset and it's bullshit.
 
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iconmaster

Banned
I'm just enjoying watching Star Wars get it from both sides. I don't know if this new angle will catch on, but I kind of hope it does.

Star Wars is bad, and also racist!

WaryWavyBeardeddragon-max-1mb.gif
 

carlosrox

Banned
Notice how they also love to use the angry black man trope in the new trilogy?

Take a shot every time Finn screams out emotionally/angrily. Notice how he's the only character who ever does this?



When being woke is actually racist.
 
Well they did sideline him for daddy China and he was barely in the last movie. He was a wasted character like most in that stinky reboot trilogy
 

ruvikx

Banned
He is just mad that he fucked up and disney left him. Disney made him a star. He pulled some SJW BS on fans and now he will probably fade away into obscurity.

Hayden Christensen is a great example for these actors. He got savaged by the press & fans, yet took it well, never complained, waited patiently & now fans are screaming for him to return in the Obi Wan series because he was A/respectful towards Star Wars fandom & B/fans now realize those prequels were better than the shit Disney served. Plus his lightsaber duel in Episode III is a timeless classic.

Boyega just comes across as another bitter little shit who takes wealth for granted & wants to appeal to the extremist social justice crowd because it's what gives him immediate headlines.
 

Kev Kev

Member
then go fucking make "black star wars" asshole. how much more does america need to suck black peoples cocks before they stop getting a pass to call all of us racist, and blame white people for all of their problems? telling us we are sub-conciously racist, or unknowingly racist or whatever the fuck... like, fuck you dude, jfc
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
It had nothing to do with him being Black, it was because he was male.
John you got screwed over by the people you pander to
Yes Finn should have had a major role and it was set up like that.
But as soon as Katherine got the "The Force is Female" in her head, Finn was dead .
The difference between the first and the sequels is jarring.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
Sounds like he has a point:

Furthermore, Boyega spoke out against the fact that his role was constantly minimized by discussions of his race. Saying that he was “the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race”.

“It makes you angry with a process like that,” Boyega stated. “It makes you much more militant; it changes you. Because you realize, ‘I got given this opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me.’”

 

ExpandKong

Banned
Ehhh probably not good for his career to come out so publicly like this, but he's probably set for life with dat Star Wars money anyway.

He ain't wrong though, Finn was just about the only character in TFA that seemed like an actual character and not an, uh...imitation of some other character I guess? Like, TFA is by far the least offensive movie in that whole trilogy, but Rey and Kylo and Poe all felt like...cardboard cutouts? Or action figures with pullstrings in the bag that spout lines when you pull them? It's kind of hard to explain I guess.

Finn was a kind of character we hadn't seen in the movies before and he had some actual character development in that first movie compared to everyone else, who felt like they were just action figures being slammed together by some unseen child.

Then old roundhead RJ undid all that and had Finn go through basically the same arc in TLJ (I'm gonna run away...ok I changed my mind to put my life on the line for the resistance) and paired him up with the worst character since Jar Jar to boot.

Then RoS...eh.

Finn as a character is just about the only good idea anybody had with any of the Disney trilogy and they still fucked him up.
 
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Kamina

Golden Boy
It’s only fair that “white devils” dont get any main rolls anymore.
I myself hide all day because i cant handle the shame for being white anymore.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
It had nothing to do with him being Black, it was because he was male.
no, he was literally pushed to the side because he was black.

151209103057-star-wars-china-racism-poster-full-169.jpg


or rather, he was taken from the side, shrunken down to 1/3th the size, and inserted beneath BB-8.
 

Kreen101

Member
It's never enough for woke people. That may be the most important thing to know about them. Never meet their demands, because it's all a con: what you give them today as a gesture of goodwill, they will claim tomorrow is clearly insufficient.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Aren't Asians really discriminatory against Blacks?
that is what i hear. perhaps they would be less so if international movie companies stood their grounds which they so loudly proclaim time and time again and made the hero the same size on a poster. i guess money is worth more than racial justice to them. also funny how we can just blame the other country when it is an American company that decided to indulge that racism.

also it is funny how Rian Johnson made a movie all about how "It isn't in your blood" and "Anyone can be a Jedi" and yet the movie shits on Finn for ever thinking he was a hero and the only person we discover who has the force is the little white broom boy kid who is the director stand in. WOW A LITTLE WHITE KID WITH THE FORCE RIAN YOU BLOWN OUR MINDS YET AGAIN

508f6f33432853e9e2e42b69ba44e29b5f6831c0.jpg
 
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TLJ fucked his character turned him into a joke from the first scene. quit blaming TROS for Rian's fuckups. dude was handed some prime ingredients and proceeded to smear them on the wall.

honestly Rian could have come up with a story. Finn goes off to find out where he is from? Finn and Poe have a buddy cop adventure (like everyone in the world wanted)? something interesting and character building?

instead he came up with "Finn only cares about Rey like he is some idiot puppy also him giving his life to defeat the new Sith Lord was a lie, still a coward" and you want to blame JJ lol.

I'm not blaming JJ. I'm blaming Disney execs.

Hell, Rian was gonna have a buddy cop adventure between Finn & Poe, but I suspect that was shut down by higher ups and not by Rian think "they'd look too much like the same character" because, you know... the "implication."

And I bet execs shut down the "Finn the revolutionary" idea for IX to placate you anti-SJW fucks. You guys won. You fucked up the trilogy. Congratulations.
 
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TrainedRage

Banned
Really easy to say when the press tours are over. The late night shows are over. The contract is done. Etc. Why didn't this dude have a problem with it years ago while he was making millions?
Fuck his privileged whiney ass. Dude is a generally bad actor, yet here he is whining.
 
i dont think this has to do with race tbh.....its more of the fact that they just wanted to focus on the main characters for pos ROS.

its just coincidence that all the "side" characters were poc - its not coincidence that disney made them poc, but it is coincidence that disney ditched all the tertiary characters who happened to be poc.

disney is trying to be the most inclusive and open companies and they still cant win/shake the criticism.
 
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Bogey

Banned
All he said in that quote is to not make it seem like non-White characters are gonna be a big deal in the story and then back-pedal when things are heating up.

Disney is fake-woke. When it counts, they can't commit.

I'm not too involved in that whole star wars debate. Is there any credible indication Disney indeed made this call based on racist considerations?

I'm asking because i unfortunately see a trend towards blaming racism for absolutely any personal mishap. (Heck, I've had friends dead convinced they didn't get a job because everyone is racist.. No dude, you barely made it through university, and can't answer the simplest questions about the very subject you graduated in, that's why it's tough to find a job)

Long story short. Yea I think it's a shame he didn't get more relevance in the story, both because his character was relatively interesting, and him being rather charismatic as an actor. But there could be a plethora of reasons behind that decision, so just curious if there's legit credibility behind allegations of racism at play!?
 

belmarduk

Member
Waaaaaaaaaah
I’m sure he was highly compensated for playing Finn. Not everything is about race. I will say that he was at least a good actor, unlike the woman who played Rose.
 

MacReady13

Member
God I love this shit! He is a so called "minority" getting a major role in a once massive franchise, yet complains he is not given enough to do! Fuck him and fuck Disney and fuck all the so called woke people who push for this shit. Just shows that no matter what you give, it is NEVER enough!
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Hell, Rian was gonna have a buddy cop adventure between Finn & Poe, but I suspect that was shut down by higher ups and not by Rian think "they'd look too much like the same character" because, you know... the "implication."
no, that was Rian's own lack of writing skill. he admitted he was unable to think of something for them that wasn't boring.
"Honestly, I actually wrote, in the very first draft I wrote of it, Poe went with Finn on the mission to Canto Bight, and the two of them were going to be together on the mission," Johnson confessed. "And it didn’t work at all because those two get along so well and it’d be really boring."

when you look at the Last Jedi screentime, it's quite baffling that he gave Luke Skywalker more screentime than Finn.

fx547Az.jpg


people kept telling me "It isn't Luke's story" well i'm sorry but the movie was entirely centered around him. Rian should have written a movie around the new characters but he tried that and failed. for some dumb reason he had to write the whole thing himself so we got stuck with what we got.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
This comment section is fucking weird, I've gotta say.

Boyega is right. The initial marketing for the first movie had him front and centre. They made it look like he was gonna be the main dude and his initial story started out intriguingly. Then it turns out nope, Rey's the one.

All he said in that quote is to not make it seem like non-White characters are gonna be a big deal in the story and then back-pedal when things are heating up.

Disney is fake-woke. When it counts, they can't commit.

Respect to Boyega for calling them out. He's right. It was obvious what they did and it was bullshit.


Its not so much that Disney are fake woke. There was a lot of battles over these movies internally in the end. the "WOKE" people where the ones making the movies. this is the whole reason for the rumored " cleaning house" for the marvel and starwars films side of things.

JJ abrams was an obvious mistake in hindsight to create and oversee a cohesive story line. also I am expecting KATHLEEN KENNEDY to "resign" (aka get kicked ot the curb) from lucas film at some point when her contract is up as she was rumored to be a big contributor to the issues.

put it this way. Lucas has issues with her and wont work with her, but Jon Favreau called on lucas for the mandalorian. which is a big hit with starwars fans.
 
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