It does not seem likely that John Boyega’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi character, Finn, will become a Jedi. The young actor himself responded to persistent fan speculation that Finn might eventually follow the footsteps of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and maybe even his friend Rey (Daisy Ridley), down the Jedi path.


Since those early days of promoting 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, many initially thought that Finn would be the one to be groomed as the next Jedi given a very cool shot of him holding a lightsaber. While a bit of a mislead from Lucasfilm, Finn turned out to be great as he breathed fresh air into the series with his candidness and dry humor. Most importantly, he also felt like he represented the fans in the story, providing an outsider’s perspective on everything that happened in the narrative. But can he still become a follower of the Jedi way of living? Boyega does not think so.


When the subject of actually becoming a Jedi came up during a new interview with Digital Spy, Boyega sounded pretty sure his character won’t be one, citing franchise tradition as his main reason. Having said that, he adds that whatever becomes of Finn, he only hopes that it would be an interesting personal arc for him as he continues to settle in his new role as a member of the Resistance:

“Would I like to be a Jedi? I think it would be more interesting if they had more than one person be a Jedi – but I think that that is the one of the unspoken laws of Star Wars. They only have one who has to go away and train. … I hope it takes an interesting turn; not in terms of being a Jedi, but there are loads more stronger characters in the Star Wars universe that can go up against Jedi and they don’t necessarily have to be a Jedi. I would like to explore that more; the whole Boba Fett vibe. I would like to explore that for Finn, but who knows?”


Boyega may be on to something suggesting having a Boba Fett appeal to him. After all, not all cool characters in the lore are Jedis, a great example of that is Han Solo himself. In hindsight, among the bevy of new major players in the franchise, he is the one to have the most unusual backstory and it would be nice to see him lead a different life compared to the other characters. Additionally, giving Finn a story arc different from the usual Star Wars tropes as he continues to carve his own story in the mythos after boldly deflecting from the First Order only further diversifies the series.


We’ll see how his story progresses from initially not wanting to have anything to do with the ongoing battle between the First Order and the Resistance to becoming one of the latter’s best Freedom Fighters on the front lines. As he fully immerses himself in this new life, we can only expect greater things to come for Finn as he goes on a covert mission with newbie Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) tracking down the codebreaker, but supposedly helpful, D.J. (Benicio del Toro). Based on the trailers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we will also see him confront his past as he goes head to head with Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie).