OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:18 PM – Tuesday, April 1, 2025
33-year-old British actor John Boyega recently called out the “Star Wars” series for being “so white,” during an interview for an Apple TV+ documentary.
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Boyega, the British actor and producer, achieved global fame for his role as “Finn” in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015). He also starred in “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker.”
“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something,” Boyega argued in the documentary.
Furthermore, Boyega did not spare the franchise’s fanbase from his critiques, asserting that whenever Black characters are introduced, fans often dismiss their inclusion as mere “pandering.”
“You can always tell it’s something when some ‘Star Wars’ fans try to say, ‘Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!’ It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It’s like, they just scattered that in there, bro!” he continued.
“They’re okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just a bit too much! They’re pandering,’” Boyega added.
Despite Boyega acknowledging that being cast in the movies was a “fundamental moment” in his career, he also previously criticized Disney’s underdevelopment of diverse characters.
“What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up,” he previously stated in 2020.
“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” he continued. “But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f*** all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ 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.”
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