It sounds like John Boyega is done with the Star Wars universe, but it doesn’t mean he’s on board for other big fantasy franchises…
The famously outspoken John Boyega is speaking out again. The actor who played Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy has never been shy about pushing back against people who criticize those movies, or getting involved in worthy causes.
Boyega is so outspoken that he’s wondered if it would cost him his career, but happily, that hasn’t happened. Just the other day, he posted a picture of himself back on set, decked out head to toe in coronavirus-resistant PPE, of course:
As usual, Boyega was happy to engage with fans in the comments. “Force Finn in action with Green lightsaber dressed in black is all I want from the next SW film!” said @techsteveo. But Finn shot that idea down. “lol no thank you. I’ve moved on.”
Naturally, that wasn’t the end of it. “eally just got those Disney bucks and dipped,” wrote @samkim_1. Boyega’s response: “ope. Not into playing one role for too long. I have more to offer than that. That’s all.”
Boyega did, however, say that he’d be up for revisiting his character Moses from 2011’s Attack the Block. It all makes sense to me. He filmed that movie years and years ago, and there’s a big difference between returning to a sleeper hit and a massive franchise like Star Wars.
That’s not to say Boyega wouldn’t get involved in another franchise project at some point. On Twitter, he seemed psyched about the possibility of being part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe:
When you lot are ready to have the benders in Africa explored let me know! https://t.co/mUPx0JwWIs pic.twitter.com/zOVuHCRYjv
— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) July 19, 2020
The Last Airbender is the 15-year-old animated fantasy epic from Nickelodeon that’s having a serious revival right about now, thanks to it dropping on Netflix for the first time. The show draws from different influences than a lot of other fantasy epics. Instead of a world modeled off medieval England, it has cultures based on the histories of China, Japan, India and Inuit peoples.
But if there’s an analog for Africa in the world of The Last Airbender, we haven’t seen it yet. But who’s to say we can’t?
Netflix is currently make a live-action remake of the original animated series and is committed to casting Asian actors in the roles, which is great, particularly after a 2010 movie adaptation came under fire for white-washing. Let’s see how that goes…
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h/t Variety