ST John Boyega (Finn) in Episode IX

Stick around to the end.



John has a real gift for creating chemistry with people in the films he works on. I don't know why but to me it just seems so natural. I still recall how Lupita reacted to his well wishes on Good morning America....I think the word 'Delight' would best describe her facial expressions.

He needs to play a charismatic villain that actually has a point....someone that manages to change the heroes mind or be such a good guy in most other respects that you find it hard to hate them....Someone like Hank Scorpio (Best boss ever) from the Simpsons, The Lord-Ruler from Brandon Sandersons 'Mistborn' novel, or a version of "Kor' the Klingon commander from Star Trek TOS 'Errand of Mercy'

Actually...considering the JJ Trek movies have yet to really touch on the Klingons that could be a fantastic role John. We keep the Klingons looking like the following



And have John Play a young Commander that Views Kirk and crew as worthy Opponents...with Kirk not winning...but forcing a stalemate that maintains the balance of power and peace throughout the sector the conflict occurs in.

Kol (John Boyega): "Well played Kirk, the brandy will be one me next time."

 

If Finn leads a stormtrooper rebellion do you think it’s something that happens spontaneously or will it be a plan by Finn plotted out in advance? I’m guessing spontaneously but maybe they’ll plant seeds for it along the way. Maybe the stormtroopers aren’t fans of the new leadership and are tired of being used as fodder and Finn exploits that weakness.

 

See they could imply that Phasma's treachery got out and that lead to many Troopers questioning their leadership. Most just leave, either seeking out lives in the outer rim or becoming mercenaries. Some choose to join the growing Resistance, and those former troopers could look to Finn for guidance.

 

Doubtful, simply because there's no stormtrooper alive that knows what Phasma did.

 

I am curious if Phasma's death will have some sort of in-universe effect on the stormtrooper program, or certain loyalties. Again it's one of those moments where the set-up is there but the story group could easily just disregard it...

 

I really wanna believe JJ had something big planned for Finn...

"i hope you know what you're doing..."

 

And that, Ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a 'Class Act".

 

Let's vote people. He deserves it

 

How do you vote?

 

i think it says just to retweet, but i'd check the website as well just to be safe

 

Unless a mysterious man dressed up as a fisherman runs around the galaxy saying, "I know what you did last summer"!

 

If Rey is the new Jedi in IX, and Poe is in the Resistance leadership position.

I hope they display Finn more of a pointman.

 

The ending to TLJ even portrayed Finn as the guy who didn't want to run despite Poe's insistence.

If Poe has to be the Leonardo, I don't mind seeing Finn as the Raphael.

 

I'd love it if Episode 9 began with a Space Battle, and we hear Poe giving orders over the comms as fighters attack one another...only to realize that Poe is on the command Ship and it's Finn leading the fighter assault from an E-Wing (EU Starfighter, look it up if you need to), which then turns into him boarding an FO ship with Rey. She goes high (heading for the bridge) Finn takes his team and goes Low (heading for Engineering) everyone working together to Capture the Finalizer and the information it holds. Would even enjoy a sequence where Poe takes command of the Finalizer, rechristening it to 'The Organa' and making it part of the growing Rebel fleet. At the same time Finn and Rey snag on of the FO Spec Ops transports to use in their missions (The Falcon is just too recognizable....so they use it as a decoy...Kylo Ren obsessing with it's location and thus missing what Rey and Finn are really up to).

 

I want to see Finn get some solo time where he gets to show self-reliance, especially as a warrior. I'm rather tired of seeing him constantly tethered to other characters like he can't do anything himself. Him being with Rey is cool and all, especially if it would involve him fighting the KOR and or Kylo or even having a force related arch, but I still want to see him have his own moments. He deserves it.

 

Finn was shown as a guy without a home in VII. He doesnt belong in the FO and doesnt fit in with the Resistance entirely. He still attempts to leave the latter in the first of VIII. By the end of VIII he tells Phasma "I'm a rebel." He seems to have completed his journey searching for a home. He now feels at home here.

So, what is next for him?

 

I'd like to see Finn match or even outmatch someone in combat. So far he's been confronted and found himself in melee combat three times, and only one barely qualifies as a win. I'm hoping that the next time we see him he looks like someone who has the potential/confidence to best someone like Phasma in battle, and achieve a more satisfying victory.

 

If he seriously killed 1+ KoR with a melee weapon I'd actually clap in the theater. Like, the second we see/hear the weapon slice or pierce the armor, and the body hits the ground, I'm actually standing and clapping. And I never do that. All these rough melee fights have to be building towards something. It would be such a satisfying thing to watch.

 

For me, I'd say you have Finn struggling with the idea of the war ending in the last movie. Play Episode 9 as the final days of the First Order...and it's dangerous when it's desperate. However the end of this war and the restoration of the Republic is in sight and Finn has NO idea what he's going to do....where he's going to go and that frightens him. Show him brave and bold in battle, capable and commanding but when alone it's clear that the future scares him. I mean what CAN he do but fight? He wasn't raised to farm or be a merchant, he doesn't have any other training except in how to wage war. That is his true struggle in Episode 9, not killing bad guys and wannabe dark lords....but wrestling with the idea of who he is outside war.

 

That sounds like a pretty simple setup for a spin-off. Although I would still have him focused on defeating the First Order and/or Kylo and the KOR as well. I think we need to see Finn as a full-fledged warrior first and foremost. To me, we need that because it would really go a long way into helping the audience see just how much of his identity is wrapped up in being a warrior. We've pretty much been denied that for two straight movies in favor of the janitor line. With the way he's been presented so far, half the general audience thinks he's a janitor that was given armor and a gun instead of what he's canonically supposed to be which is a warrior that was given a bucket and mop. Counteracting the janitor angle while promoting the warrior angle is of the utmost importance for that particular storyline to work.

 

That is one of the problems with this trilogy in general, the issues of building towards something. I understand why they wanted to give each director so much freedom...but (oddly enough) if they'd looked at some of the issues with the Old EU books...they would've seen some of the problems with this method. Certain writers (like certain directors) had favorite characters and in their stories those characters would play more of a role. This could be problematic when three different authors had to work on a series of books. An example would be the "Legacy of the Force" series which had three authors Aaron Allston, Karen Travis, and Troy Denning...picked because they were popular at the time not because they all worked well together (to be fair Troy and Aaron got along all right though had differing opinions).



The issue was Karen Traviss....who wasn't a big fan of the Jedi....but absolutely adored the Mandalorians...to the point where she brought them into the story...and seemingly kept a death grip on all portrayals of them. I could be wrong, but I believe Aaron said at a Con that he offered to set up the Mandalorians presence in his book (which came before Karen) and she essentially told him to keep his hands off her characters. This lead to mandalorians showing up in Karens three books then being more or less absent in all the others. And even in her book their relevance to the story was...flimsy at best.

This is the problem we are facing with the ST, JJ really wanted to get Rey and Finn off to a good start (I will leave discussions of his success in that regard to other threads), but was kind of blocked from really setting things up because he knew the next writer/director could take the story in whatever direction they wished. This was really shown in TLJ when RJ swerved HARD with his story and characterization...some of which works (Kylo Ren killing Snoke and becoming the big bad...yeah I can get behind that) and some of which doesn't work (Canto Bight). So now we have a whole bunch of threads we COULD do something interesting with...but it's not really set up to go in a particular direction.

I could have the next film begin like this:

All of this COULD work with the characters as we've seen them. Finn clearly knows how to drive a vehicle given his scene on Crait, given time he could learn how to fly a fighter. With Time Poe could find himself commanding the big ships, and with time Rey could makes sense as a capable Jedi. However...none of this was necessarily set up. I could just as easily keep Poe in the cockpit of a fighter, have Finn be some kind of Tobias Beckett style gunslinger, or make Rey less of a force warrior and more of a mystic.

Since JJ did help create Finn and argued for John Boyega to play him, I'd like to believe he has some kind of payoff in mind for all the things Finn has done, but...he may not...or the movie 'flow' might see more great scenes end up on the cutting room floor. I suppose we should be getting some clue within a month or two about how things look for Finn and the rest as Shooting begins.

 

I've always held out hope Finn would end up discovering a connection to the Force, and I still hope he gets to really have his day to shine fully in his own success, even if it's not as a force user. But I do hope that is where his character ends up eventually.

 

Yeah you see a lot of fans argue that, "Finn isn't important because he doesn't have the Force!" But then say, "Finn's fine the way he is. He doesn't need the Force." So honestly they should have him be more of an independent force user. There's technically enough hypothetical evidence to support this in canon, as well as Leia's comment about how everyone has the Force. I like the Force better this way.

Finn's one of those characters that could be revealed Force Sensitive last minute and not have it be conflicting with any piece of story we have so far. It would fit right in honestly. Especially the Poe Dameron comic that (again) pretty blatantly seems to set up Poe as Force Sensitive as well. Surprised they did it so easily as well.