‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Director Teases Finn’s Freakout

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the traitorous Stormtrooper known as FN-2187 spent the movie escaping and fighting the First Order. But in less than two months, the newly-named Finn (John Boyega) will be on a mission into the heart of the villains he abandoned.

Director Rian Johnson spoke about Finn’s journey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi during a conversation with USA Today. Though they talked about on Carrie Fisher’s final performance and even released a new photo of Luke Skywalker’s intriguing library, he offered some new insight into the state of Boyega’s character.

Asked if Finn would be freaking out since he has to return to the First Order, Johnson laughed and replied “I would if I were him.”

“Just think of the moral courage it took, and how much just physically it took, to get away from the First Order,” said Johnson. “It’s that thing of coming back to ‘What’s the thing that would be toughest to throw at each of these people?’ And to go back into the machine, to put that uniform on again, made a lot of sense to me.”

Johnson said that he wanted to put the new characters through a some troubling trials after being introduced to them in the previous film.

“When I first read the script of The Force Awakens, I was like, ‘I feel like I know these characters instantly.’ And now we get to kind of put them through a meat grinder,” Johnson said.

Finn’s journey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi will see him team up with a Resistance mechanic named Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) and a mystery man named DJ (Benicio del Toro) while going undercover in the First Order’s ranks.

We know this won’t turn out well, as the trailer has revealed a long-awaited standoff between Finn and his former commanding officer Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), who is out for blood after being left in a trash compactor while the Starkiller Base exploded in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It doesn’t sound like things will be easy for Finn in the new film, but he’ll likely come out a better hero because of it. Assuming he survives, that is.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres in theaters on December 15.