John Boyega slams Disney over treatment of black Star Wars characters

[jwplayer RA2ZiuOp] British actor John Boyega has slammed Disney over their use of black characters, saying that what occurred with him during his work on Star Wars is “not good.”

Since his work on the Star Wars franchise finalized, Boyega has been very outspoken about his experiences, calling out the “toxic” fans and saying that he’s “moved on” from the films.

Now, though, he has spoken again on his experiences with Disney on the Star Wars franchise, and slammed their treatment of black and other non-white characters.

In an interview with GQ Magazine, Boyega reflected on his involvement in the newest trilogy, which rounded off with ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ in 2019.

“You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything,” he said. “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.”

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Obviously here he is talking about his own character, former Stormtrooper Finn, though he feels fellow people of color in the cast — Naomi Ackie and Kelly Marie Tran, for example — suffered the same treatment, too.

“You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” he added. “You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f**k all.”

Boyega continued on his impassioned speech, saying: “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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The 28-year-old Londoner also touches on how certain outfit choices of his would make his Star Wars stylist “cringe,” but that working on the franchise was still an “amazing opportunity” and a “stepping stone” that has helped his life and career tremendously.

In the interview with GQ, Boyega also took the opportunity to defend director J.J. Abrams and his attempts to finish the trilogy with a bang. “Everybody needs to leave my boy alone,” he said of the backlash to Rise of Skywalker. “He wasn’t even supposed to come back and try to save your sh*t.”

Obviously, while John Boyega has regularly distanced himself from Star Wars since filming wrapped, he has had a lot of time to think about the treatment of himself and his co-stars, and believes Disney need to do better for black characters.