Rey vs. Finn: Who's on top?

I've read part of an interview with John Boyega, where he says J.J. Abrams warned him he'd become "the new face of Star Wars."

That's understandable, given he is one of the new leads. And I will concede that Star Wars is an ensemble piece.

But between him and Rey, who do you think ends up with the bigger part?

Yes, it's great that we have a black man in a major role that may exceed what Mace Windu or Lando did before. But from what I've seen in the trailers and the poster, it seems like Rey is the front-and-center lead of the film, and that's something they've never done before either. Is great as Leia and Padme were as heroines, they still came in second to the male leads. This is like having an Ellen Ripley or a Cpt. Janeway in the new films.

While having a black man in the male lead is exciting, something about having a woman in the lead, in what was already established as a largely male universe, excites me more. I don't often go for "chick flicks," but I do like seeing a woman at the center of a story that would usually involve a man.

 

I'd guess it's something like:

Rey=Luke
Finn=Han
Poe=Leia

 

LOL

 

Anyway, I think Rey is on top.

 

"This thread, thankfully, isn't about what I thought it would be about "
If Roberto Benigni and Gerard Depardieu....

 

Same ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎

 

Depends on what their last names are.

That being said, probably Rey.

 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)‎

 

Rey is always shown before Finn (even before the Lucasfilm Ltd. logo) in the trailers so I'm assuming she's the main character.

 

I hope so!

 

Finn's gonna be a very important character for sure, just maybe not the protagonist. He would be the deuteragonist, and Poe the triagonist.

 

chances are its Rey

 

Rey screams Amidala, and it would be a brave departure to not showcase the Skywalker line front and center.

 

I think Daisy Ridley will most certainly be the star of the movie, simply because I strongly suspect that she’s the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. John Boyega obviously isn’t their offspring.

 

Well, not Han's anyway. Lando did seem really interested in Leia...

 

Yeah, but I don’t recall Leia ever accepting his advances, whereas they do clearly set her up with Han at the end. Plus, since Lando isn’t in the movie, having the daughter of Han and Leia appear would have more dramatic impact.

As for Boyega, I’d prefer that he not be the child of an original trilogy character. There’s enough “I am your father” and “Leia is my sister” in there already.

 

Left out the /sarcasm.

 

Either way it's progressive. Either I see a movie with a black lead, or a woman lead. BOTH are great as it's variety and it's nice to give the other gender and races the main focus. It's not needed but still nice to get someone kinda new if you think about it. The only time I seen a black man as a movie's lead was men in black. If it's Finn people can stop the jokes about how lando's the only black man in the galaxy, as a black man will be the lead and if it's Rey then same goes for Leia's only woman in the galaxy thing (in the whole OT there was like what, 3 woman total?)....so either one will make the movie look progressive and kill over played jokes.

As for who I want....I want Rey.....partly because Daisy Ridley is literally the first movie crush of my life XD I'll have to watch to see which is the real lead or which is better. They might both be tied in how epic they are and might both have the same amount of importance/screen time. However I wanna see a awesome female lead a little more so that's another reason for Rey.

Also nobody take my comments the wrong way, I just mean for the franchise's image, I'm no social justice warrior. I've no problem with weather it's white,black male or female as the lead, I was just listen Pros to this situation.

 

Running off of the bet thread on Rey's parentage, I think Disney Co spilled a great deal of ink calculating the optimal judicious risk in taking an incremental approach away from patriarchal monomyth. And the ease of the risk probably comes down to the credentials with which the new characters are presented. With Finn Disney gets to explore nature verses nurture with respect to race and social class/socioeconomic mobility. As it was put in the trailer, 'I was born to do one thing.' ESB and TPM repeated that all living beings regardless of species have an irreducible residue of force sensitivity. Mace Windu showed there is nothing extraordinary about a black Jedi Master. At a coarse, businesslike, level Finn stands in for the check box that Lando as ethnic sidekick filled. He will have opportunity to demonstrate moral responsibility toward some greater good, effect his own release from some kind of presumably ideological chain, and these will serve to ratify his force sensitive credentials. This character has a marketable narrative, universal across race. Raise yourself above some abusive assumption and expectation of your very purpose. This is an excellent vector, in magnitude and direction, away from patriarchal monomyth. All persons have agency to effect their own narrative. This leans into Star Trek ideals ever so slightly.

Disney Co is not going to take a step of faith off the cliff of the enduring rock, blood is destiny. They can peer over, lean over, not step off it. That would be Star Trek. Every child in the main marketing bracket that consumes these products has to be able to envision that they are *parented to a position of merit, that they possess *rare genetic credential. Rey serves this need while also checking off some other box. The camera's focus will be on whoever generates this *more marketable feeling. By virtue of this she is also the scion. One can not not think of elephant when told to not think of elephant. Since the franchise will point backwards to lineage it must perforce place some strain on the question of 'who' bears the torch into the future of transmitting this *rare genetic credential, no matter how many egalitarian instances of other Force sensitivity there is. Disney Co is launching a huge expensive payload with who and what these two leads are, and it is not going to spring a Star Trek trap on a Star Wars audience. There will be blood is destiny. Rey will be the face of the franchise. It's a calculated chess move. (I love it, too.)

If I am incorrect on this prediction after release of TFA, I will at that time eat my dinner.

 

I'm not so certain Disney Co had that level of involvement in the script. I'm pretty sure the genders ultimately came down to Abrams & Kasdan. During the comic-con panel Abrams claimed that there was no concious decision about race revolving around Finn's casting, however something in his tone made me feel like he wasn't being completely forthright. My gut feeling was that Abrams himself, having being given such a wide berth of creative freedom by Kathleen Kennedy and the controlling Executives at Disney, took that particular responsibility on board for personal reasons. Having all that power while being (I suspect) a progressive and socially conscious person, Abrams opened up the characterization and casting possibilities for the protagonist and deuteragonist to be filled by people that aren't white men. If the the PC-sensitive-sensitive people would excuse the "SJW" parlance; Abrams checked his privilege.

I've also read that reaching the young male demographic factored hugely into Disney's decision to purchase LucasFilm. Although it seems to me that Marvel has given that particular box a very salient tick and if anything is capable of bridging the gender gap, it's Star Wars. Whether or not they engineered it, they certainly stand to benefit from that outcome. I'd admit the casting for Rogue One would lead credence to the idea that they are making that a mandate with the franchise.

I hope you are right in keeping in line with the "blood is destiny" trope, as that would please the big man himself:

Lineage has been such a major theme of Star Wars up until now that I think it do depart from it in an Episodic part of the series would be to err. The Anthology films should be free to move away from that theme.