John Boyega said he’s ‘moved on’ from Star Wars and it became a thing

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Oh my word – would everyone leave poor John Boyega alone. John, rightfully, made news last month for his powerful words at a BLM protest in London. He said his career might be ended by his comments, but many filmmakers and potential costars came to John’s defense. John made those comments about his career being in danger because people like to take his most innocuous statements and blow them out of proportion. And it just happened again! Last week, John posted this very innocent photo and caption to Instagram:

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Back on set ! Have a nice day everyone ❤️

A post shared by John Boyega (@johnboyega) on

You would think that nothing controversial could come of this – he’s working, it’s just him and a makeup or hair person, they are showing wonderful COVID protocol and he even wished us a nice day. John has a few projects completed or in post-production and a couple in pre-production, so I don’t know which of them this photo is from (one commenter said it’s for his Small Axe TV series). The point is, John is working on a variety of projects.

Well, one commenter who goes by the name techsteveo commented on the post, “Force Finn in action with a Green lightsaber dressed in black is all I want from the next SW film!” Again, it doesn’t seem like a very controversial reply, especially considering how many people thought Finn had been sidelined in the last film. John, however, made the mistake of responding to techsteveo by saying, “lol no thank you. I’ve moved on” and even closed with one of his signature red hearts. Because, you see, he is, in fact, done. The trilogy has closed out. If Disney has any sense at all they will let that particular branch of the franchise go, let Finn rest and John to go on to his other projects in peace. But no. John’s name was all over Twitter and various entertainment outlets under the headline “John Boyega said he’s moved on from his Star Wars Character” as if he’d burned Finn in effigy while chanting “Down with Jedis!” Even if John’s intention was just to remind his Star Wars fans that his contract was up and there are no future plans for Finn, the reaction was nuts. @Softieskywalker best illustrated the difference in how people react to John:

And people were still defending Harrison Ford over John in the comments of that hypothetical situation presented in a tweet to show people how silly they were being.

Fortunately, as often happens in these situations, calmer heads prevailed. After a day of Twitterstorms, John tweeted this response to the “controversy”:

It is what most people do, like the aforementioned Harrison Ford, like Ewan McGregor, like Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. I’m not sure, but I think James Earl Jones was even able to find some work after he’d hung up his Darth Vader microphone (insert eye-roll). So can we all just please let John live and not punish him for taking on the role of Finn? I swear, fans feel they are entitled to dictate an actor’s life once they sign on to a franchise. I hope John goes on to many other project. I hope he never silences himself because of what some fair-weather-fans might say. And I really wish these armchair warriors would find a way to use their powers for good, you know, like Finn would.

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Photo credit: Instagram, Twitter and wENN/Avalon

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16 Responses to “John Boyega said he’s ‘moved on’ from Star Wars and it became a thing”

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  1. Bettyrose says:

    No one moves on from Star Wars. If you’re Gen-X, they’ll just keep reeling you back in, ravaging your childhood memories and forcing you to endure more spin off content, and you’ll watch, otherwise were you ever really a fan to begin with? Disney owns you.

  2. Peanutbuttr says:

    Between the fandom menace and the Reylos I would run far far away from Star Wars.

    • Sigmund says:

      Yes, let’s compare the predominantly female fan group to the literal white supremacists. That’s not misogynistic at all.

  3. Christine says:

    I didn’t take his reply to be negative. The “no thank you” could be interpreted that working on and promoting SW has to be frickin exhausting. Plus the trilogy is done… my guess if he does show up in future movies it will be more of a guest role.

  4. Solace says:

    He is great. I’d like to see more of him and less of Daisy Ridley.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Totally agree – he has more talent than her. Daisy seems like a nice person but she isn’t that great of an actress and is rather oblivious to the fact that her family connections in the industry made it easier for her than most other people. Her grandfather was a well known actor in the UK.

  5. BW says:

    WOW, I love what he’s wearing in that last photo. The man looks like a king.

    I love him, and I hope he continues to get lots of work and be outspoken.

  6. Ariel says:

    I realize that Star Wars fans with vitriol have sewn racism into their “fandom”, which is gross.
    But i remember Carrie Fisher, in her one woman show (Wishful Drinking), made a statement about how she didn’t realize when she donned the metal bikini (at age 24) that she had signed an invisible contract with the world to always have that body- never age or gain weight. And it irked her. People take Star Wars way too seriously.
    But mostly, Star Wars mania, like many other “fan complaints”, seems like an outlet for barely disguised racism.

    • Mia4s says:

      It’s a trick spot because in all honesty he (as with Carrie) likely will never be in anything as successful or popular. He will be in “better” things, oh absolutely (not a fan of this trilogy so to me that won’t be hard!) but on sheer popularity and box office? This will always loom large. Same for the Avengers actors, it is what it is! But it can be particularly tough when things didn’t go out on a high note and fans are left wanting.

      I know people have been praising him calling out certain segments of Star Wars fans and shading the project, but it just makes me feel sad. He was REALLY excited at the beginning of this and now the disillusionment has clearly set in. He will be fine, but that it is kind of sad to see.

  7. uninspired username says:

    Finn had so much potential but he got the shit end of the stick like most black characters.

  8. Case says:

    As a huge Star Wars fan, I can safely say the Star Wars fandom is wildly toxic. I’ve taken to just quietly loving it and not trying to share with others because people are just so mean and condescending.

    But yeah, nothing he said was controversial. The trilogy is over, his role is over, it’s fine for him to move on. Don’t see what the issue is here.

  9. JillyBean says:

    What ever Star Wars… he was AMAZING in escape the block… I’m still trying to get beyond that!

    He’s so refreshing!

  10. Valerie says:

    I remember when, after the show ended, Gillian Anderson said she had moved on from The X Files. It kind of sucked at the time, and we were years away from the reboot. So I can understand how this can be disappointing for fans, but at the same time, it’s okay for him to say. He might feel differently later on.

  11. special_cases says:

    Not this shit again. Every two weeks John decides to reply to some irrelevant comment that he already moved on. It started to get reaction because the more he says it on SM, the more it looks than he didn’t move on. Seriously, celebrities really should stop this passive-agressive attitude on social media towards fans. And if they don’t, they should be ready that there will headlines in the media.
    General audience gives John a pass for his narcissism and hypocrisy because he is black, cute and because he was done really bad by Star Wars (racism in TFA is just painful to watch). I just love how John was completely silent in front JJ and never complained about racism in TFA but took time to complain about racism in TFA marketing (WTF?) in front of Rian Johnson and then criticised RJ while promoting TROS. Oh well, JJ did cast actors based on personal relationships (hired his friend after losing a bet, the character that REPLACED KMT) and John knows that RJ won’t cast him anywhere in the future – unlike JJ, RJ doesn’t fully rewrite scenes on set just because John can’t do a scene even after 20 takes.