British actor John Boyega, a confessed “Star Wars” super-nerd, has previously shared various issues with the trilogy of modern films from Lucasfilm/Disney over the years from the studio not having his back during the oddball racist/sexist attacks against himself and his co-stars, alongside more creative criticisms of the film including his path towards becoming a Jedi as teased in marketing and “The Force Awakens” being downplayed in “The Force Awakens.”
Popverse was able to put together some quotes from Boyega as he recently attended Florida Supercon 2025, where the actor shared what he would have changed in the recent film if he hypothetically were making it from his perspective as a producer. Some of those wishlist ideas Boyega wanted to see included the retconning of the deaths of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker from the first two movies.
“If I [were] a producer on ‘Star Wars’ from the beginning,” John Boyega said at Florida Supercon 2025, “You would have had a whole completely different thing…It would be mad…First of all, we’re not getting rid of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, all these people. We’re not doing that. The first thing we’re going to do is fulfill their story, fulfill their legacy. We’re going to make a good moment of handing on the baton.”
“Our new characters will not be OP’d [overpowered] in these movies. They won’t just grab stuff and know what to do with it. No. You’ve got to struggle like every other character in this franchise. I’d do that…I’d look to the Old Republic stories,” Boyega continued, “And see what we can add to the continuation of that. I would definitely want to see Force Unleashed stories in there. I would try to expand the Star Wars universe as much as possible while respecting the lore. If we’re expanding the lore, we have to do it in within the respective boundaries that stay true.”
“But Luke Skywalker wouldn’t be disappearing on a rock,” concluded Boyega, “Hell no. Standing there, and he’s, like, a projector? I would want to give those characters way more way more.”
Without getting too much into the weeds with Boyega’s statements made at the recent convention, his mentioning of Lucasfilm looking toward “The Old Republic” isn’t the worst suggestion, as there had been talk from BuzzFeed back in 2019 of development of a film/films set in that era from veteran genre screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (“Altered Carbon,” “Shutter Island,” “Alita: Battle Angel”) but that project never really materialized.
An era in the “Star Wars” timeline that had been mostly explored for the Expanded Universe material in pre-Disney comics from Dark Horse Comics and video games, not all of it exactly hard canon. But one of the big selling points is the Sith Empire, as the two-of-two has yet to be established, and you have massive armies made up of Sith forces fighting armies of Jedi, sort of a super-nerd’s dream to see an orgy of lightsaber battles on a large scale.
However, after things like The High Republic (not really looking much different than the prequel era) TV show “The Acolyte” being axed after a cliffhanger ending, teasing the arrival of Darth Plaugis, and stalled development on James Mangold‘s “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi” movie (set even further back from The Old Republic), we don’t really feel like The Old Republic is as much of a priority for the studio despite previous statements made by Kathleen Kennedy about her desire to mine that era in the franchise, which would allow them to sever their need to rehash established stories/characters over and over, and over (Lucasfilm could easily reboot The Old Republic for film and television but keep the elements they’ve retroactively made canon in recent years).
He’s back, sharing even more gripes with the creative choices made on the films, this time setting his sights on the death of Mark Hamill‘s Luke Skywalker and talking up what he would have hypothetically done if he had been in a position to make those kinds of grand decisions.
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