Rian Johnson Details Why He Cut So Many Finn Scenes From 'The Last Jedi'

Some of the most exciting moments in The Last Jedi involved John Boyega's Finn, from his partnership with Rose Tico to his confrontation with Captain Phasma. Now that the film is available on Blu-ray, many audiences have noticed many of the deleted scenes focus on Finn, leading many to wonder why his role in the final cut was reduced drastically. Writer/director Rian Johnson confirmed that, while he loves much of Finn's material, his scenes focused more on the film's narrative than any other characters, which resulted in their removal in hopes of moving the film along more quickly.

"A lot of the Finn scenes that were cut are connective material," Johnson revealed to Digital Spy. "For instance, there's a scene where he's on the ship, and BB-8 comes in and shows him… basically, BB-8 shows him a recording he made of Rey saying goodbye to him. That's when he decides, 'Oh my God, I'm going to go save Rey.'"

He continued, "In a scene like that, it was totally lovely. But once we realized that we could take it out and the audience would know he's holding Rey's beacon, and 'Oh, he's going to save her', and they would make that leap – suddenly, you can't justify that scene being there."

Some fans were disappointed they didn't get to see Finn spend time with Rey, given their chemistry together in The Force Awakens, yet Johnson elaborated why we got to spend much more time with her on Ahch-To.

"I think as opposed to Rey, where somebody like Rey had longer sequences on the island that were with Luke – with Finn, because his was a little more plotty in terms of it, there were more little scenes like that where we were like, 'Oh, we can do without this, we can do without that', and have his character arc still hold up," Johnson admitted.

The filmmaker went on to confirm that, while he's disappointed he couldn't incorporate more of Finn's scenes, he adores star Boyega.

"You can see it in the deleted scenes, he's freaking fantastic," the director confirmed. "John Boyega at his worst is better than most people at their best."

You can see these deleted scenes on The Last Jedi Blu-ray, available now.

Do you wish we got more Finn or do you think it would have slowed the film down? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Digital Spy]