John Boyega Says Rian Johnson “Could Have Done Better” With Star Wars: The Last Jedi

With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, actor John Boyega is opening up about his last adventure through the galaxy as Stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter Finn, though he’s less than enthused about the final product. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been subject to its fair share of criticisms, but few of the actors in the film have been as vocal about their displeasures like Boyega himself. Now he is going in depth on what he felt Star Wars: The Last Jedi failed to accomplish during a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

While speaking to the outlet, Boyega revealed that “the story just wasn’t there” for his character, though he praised director Rian Johnson for putting his stamp on the franchise.

“What I was excited by was, I liked the idea of Rian having his own take on something that was quite important,” Boyega said. “And I liked the idea of these characters being challenged and separated and stressed like everyone’s just trying to get to each other. That excited me.”

He added, “But I will be honest in saying and I think that they could have done better with it, especially with Finn and Rose. You know, as a black person, you’re going to feel a big type of weight. You had nothing to do with Rey and Kylo… the story just wasn’t here for me with Finn and Rose. I definitely enjoyed- I didn’t notice that on set, it was only when I watched it. But I enjoyed the experience of making it.”

This is not the first time Boyega has spoken about his thoughts on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, telling HypeBeast earlier this month that he didn’t agree with some of the choices made in the film.

“The Force Awakens I think was the beginning of something quite solid, The Last Jedi if I’m being honest I’d say that was feeling a bit iffy for me,” Boyega said. “I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of the choices in that and that’s something that I spoke to Mark [Hamill] a lot about and we had conversations about it. And it was hard for all of us, because we were separated.”

It remains to be seen how he feels about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, especially since that film is currently receiving a lot of negative reviews from critics.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres in theaters on Friday, December 20th.