John Boyega Praises Marvel Studios For Using "Special Moments" To Elevate Black Characters

Last year, after years of keeping mum about issues he had with the storytelling in the recent “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, John Boyega spoke out about the treatment that his character, Finn, received in those features. He mentioned how he felt that Disney and Lucasfilm shortchanged the character and didn’t give him powerful, showstopping “moments” to shine, which he felt was particularly troubling because Finn is one of the few Black characters in the franchise. It’s clear in various interviews given since then, Boyega is just trying to make it publicly known that he (and other POC actors) should speak up when they think their characters in blockbusters are being mistreated.

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And in a recent interview with NPR, Boyega spoke more about the controversial comments and brought up another Disney franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to help show what happens when filmmakers spend the time to give characters actual “moments” in a blockbuster.

“The characters are only as good as the moments that you give them,” Boyega said. “When we talk about, you know, Captain America and him kind of facing off Thanos and his army, when you talk about these moments that are given to characters, it’s only because these moments are written by somebody. These moments are put in there on purpose to elevate characters.”

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He continued by bringing up how “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” elevated Anthony Mackie’s character, a Black superhero, and gave him “moments.”

“We’ve got people now watching ‘Falcon And The Winter Soldier,’ and a lot of people have been commenting about the elevation of Falcon’s character – right? – in the series and how they’ve really done well with bringing him up, which I also agree as well,” he explained. “You know, and we can see there is – that’s because you give characters these special moments, you know. But then what then happens when, you know, some moments feels like you’re being bypassed and it kind of goes for years and years and things pile on?”

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It’s obvious that Boyega mostly enjoyed his time making the ‘Star Wars’ films over the past 6 years. But with time away and seeing how the whole story played out, the actor just wishes things could have been different and wishes that he had the power to speak up and ensure that Black characters like Finn didn’t get sidelined. And by mentioning another Disney franchise, Boyega is showing how it can be done on a major scale. We’ll just have to see if Boyega’s words have motivated Lucasfilm to change things up in future “Star Wars” projects.