ST John Boyega (Finn) in the ST

The issue is that TFA at least spends some time acknowledging that he's a stormtrooper, and that he did go through a traumatic experience that shaped the events of the movie. We wondered, "Why does Finn act the way he does compared to other stormtroopers?" Even one of the audio team members from TFA wondered if he was a Jedi because she knew that "he's very special." Was it the Force? Was he simply mentally stronger than others?

Again, it was something we speculated on because we all expected LINEAR constructive growth for him moving on. And the emotional confession to Rey fit pretty well for his growth as well.

But in TLJ, he could've been anyone and it wouldn't have changed anything. He could've just been any old rebel dude who had a generic beef with the bad guys. The only reference to his past was...that he mopped the Supremacy. At least in TFA we found out a small handful of things about him during the opening and his confession to Rey, which again, we figured would be expanded on in TLJ, but it wasn't. Now our only hope is extended material and Episode IX.

 

Not really, the film does delve into his character as it pertains to being a stormtrooper. All his life he's been brainwashed and finally the entire world is opened up to him. His initial reaction is to run way and save what he has (Rey), but throughout the movie he learns that fighting for something (a faction) isn't the problem, it was fighting right thing.

 

Right, but you don't really know that he's a stormtrooper in TLJ. What I mean is that he didn't have to be. He could've fought Phasma, cared about Rey, etc all without being a stormtrooper. He literally could've just been a rebel and still done the things he did. It's not like we've never seen rebels nervous to infiltrate the bad guys or want to abandon the fight.

 

Urgh yeah, but that doesn't mean what was presented wasn't built upon him being a Stormtrooper. There are probably very few thing that are exclusively stormtrooper, not least of which the examples you gave of TFA.

 

I mean, with the prior knowledge of him being a stormtrooper, you can kinda see how his experience applies to that, yeah. But at this point, it just felt like a cool add on instead of a crucial part of his story moving forward. The deleted scenes with him in the elevator and him exposing Phasma would've worked given some tweaks. Even the scene with him Rose and DJ being followed by the officer would've helped build that sense of tension instead of making it look like they got randomly caught by some droid.

I'm really curious about his life before being a stormtrooper. There's so much potential in both his family and him becoming a figure of inspiration in the Stormtrooper legions just in Episode IX and so much expanded material. I really do see there being comic issues of Finn finding his family in the future.

 

@RandomGreyJ am I going crazy, or did John actually suggest that they would touch on his origins in TLJ? I'm sure it was mentioned in one of the EW articles, but didn't seem to happen in in the film itself...

 

Conversation with Tom Hardy stormtrooper about the batch that their from.

 

Honestly if they hadn't have flat-out told you briefly that he was a Stormtrooper, I doubt that a lot of people would have gotten that from his characterization in TLJ. Because he in no way feels like an ex-stormtrooper nor does it have any real relevance to the plot.

 

Yeah thats a deleted scene, so I wouldn't call it "a part" of the film. There is no cut of the movie were that scene is in. Otherwise, we could say that finn...uh..."beat" phasma's hand off even though that clearly never happened in the movie.

 

Finn family not being revealed doesn't bother me because, well the idea that he never knew them fits in with the idea of "brainwashed obedient drones" that the FO has going on.

Now them not really using the "he's an ex-stormtrooper" idea to anywhere near it's full potential, and treating him like a bumbling joke constantly as well, now THOSE I have a huge problem with.

 

I'm saying, prior to film release, when Boyega was asked if part of his stormtrooper past was touched on in TLJ.

As far as Boyega knew, at the time, that part would be in the film.

 

@cerealbox @Dame sans merci @Thrawn082 @Blastaar I believe he said that "Well definitely find out more about his origins and his family. And why he was able to resist stormtrooper programming." But I think he meant in expanded material unfortunately. Which...I guess I can kinda look forward to in a way if Finn really does get his own central comic series that really dives into him as a character. The same will most likely go for why he was able to resist two decades of brainwashing. But I would love a comic series about him and his past/family. So many possibilities.

 

I really don't get fans obsession with Finn's birth family.

Finn was one of thousands of kids taken as babies/toddlers and put into the stormtrooper program.

If that happened to just him, or a handful of people, I'd understand.

But Finns biological family is just a statistic when you take in to account how many families had the same experience.

 

I would guess that some people would like to see Finn get some focus on something that's uniquely his. Since they seem to have completely done away with the idea of a force connection for him and won't give any real focus to his past as a stormtrooper, what else is there?

 

We already know something (even a little) about anybody's family (Rey, Poe and Rose etc) except Finn's. He was taken when he was a toddler, but Lucasfilm totally can show what happened with his family.

 

To be fair. We only of Poe's because of EU material

 

Does that really count though? I mean a southern trooper speaks to him in the elevator. Even his janitorial post is a more in depth "touching". Eh, I guess it all fits. Its a pretty low bar though.

I agree. I'm not really interested in finn's birth family. I'd be more interested in them delving into why he broke conditioning.

 

I'm interested in Finn's family.

But I'm fine with learning all that via the EU.

What I don't want is some cheap, groan inducing reveal of him being a Windu or Calrissian. Please no.

I was once rooting he'd be revealed as Luke's son, but that ship has sailed.

 

There could be, maybe, an actually emotional, gripping family story in this trilogy, to be told only in the EU, about Finn finding his real family after said family thought they had lost their baby forever.

I mean, the potential is still there.

 

I think the more interesting story for the movies to tackle with Finn is his background as a brainwashed ST and how he broke that brainwashing and how that affects him going forward. I would happily read a novel or a comic of Finn, after the war, going on a quest to find his birth family and home. For the movies that just seems smaller than his ties to the enemy since I don't expect his family to be anyone important to the Resistance vs. FO plot. Plus like others have said, I think he works as the everyman.

 

That would be a pretty good book. As long as he is not related to anyone we know I would be done with it.

 

I think there's a good chance Finn's immediate family is dead.