John Boyega

About

John Boyega is an English actor best known for his role as Finn in the Star Wars sequel film trilogy.

History

In 2011, John Boyega made his film debut in the science fiction action film Attack the Block. Three years later, on April 29th, 2014, the cast for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was announced, which included Boyega as Finn.^[1] Boyega would appear in the role in three Star Wars films: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.

Reputation

Boyega is known for publicly responding to criticism and trolls for his role in the Star Wars films.

#BlackStormtrooper

#BlackStormtrooper is a hashtag associated with online backlash surrounding British actor John Boyega’s appearance as a Stormtrooper soldier in the teaser trailer for the 2015 science fiction film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

On November 28th, 2014, Twitter users began commenting on Boyega's appearance with the hashtag #BlackStormtrooper,^[2] some of which joked about his race or questioned it's canonical validity in the Star Wars universe (shown below).

On November 29th, Boyega posted a message on Instagram^[3] giving thanks to his fans, along with a statement for certain readers to "Get used to it" (shown below). Within one week, the post gained over 4,700 likes and 690 comments.

Reylo Response

On December 31st, 2019, Boyega joked about the ship of the characters Kylo Ren and Rey, better known as Reylo, on Twitter. ^[4] He posted images of the two characters fighting with the caption "Star Wars romance." The post received more than 190,000 likes and 31,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Several weeks later, Boyega posted a video of himself mocking reactions to his social media post. The post received more than 691,000 views and 200,000 likes in less than one week (shown below).

Search Interest

External References