John Boyega has shared his personal ranking of the Star Wars movies he’s appeared in.
The British actor, 31, played the role of Finn in the rebooted franchise, which comprised Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)and Episode IV – The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
JJ Abrams directed both the first and third films in the sci-fi trilogy, with Knives Out filmmaker Rian Johnson directing the second.
Ahead of the actors’ strike in Hollywood, Boyega, who stars in Netflix’s new film They Cloned Tyrone, was asked to list his Star Wars films in order of “best to worst”.
While most actors would probably avoid the question, Boyega went ahead and shared his verdict to First We Feast for its “Truth Or Dab: Rapid Fire” segment.
“Hell yeah, I’ll do it,” he said enthusiastically after being asked.
“Star Wars – The Force Awakens is most definitely the best. Second for me comes Star Wars 9, and then the worst, in the most respectful sense is Episode VIII for me.”
Boyega then said, while cheekily side-eyeing the camera: “But they’re all lovely.”
Many were left surprised by the actor’s answer, considering Abrams’s trilogy closer, The Rise of Skywalker, is widely considered to be the weakest of the three.
Boyega has been critical of the films in the past, and expressed his disappointment with the trilogy in 2020.
Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega in ‘Star Wars’ film ‘The Last Jedi’— (Lucasfilm)
He argued that the white leads of the films were given far greater “nuance” than the franchise’s characters of colour, telling GQ: “They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest.
“Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything. [Disney], you knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know f*** all.”
Boyega was referring to his scenes with Tran’s character Rose Tico In The Last Jedi.
In the wake of the film’s release, Tran was subject to a torrent of racist and sexist abuse online following.
The minimising of her role in The Rise of Skywalker was interpreted by many as a capitulation to those complaints.
