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"If I was a producer on Star Wars from the beginning," John Boyega said at Florida Supercon 2025, "You would have had a whole completely different thing."

I won't lie to you, Popverse reader, when I come across this kind of quote from a comic con (such as Miami's premiere pop culture convention), I expect it to be followed with a lot of non-answers. Folks that have some involvement with billion-dollar franchises (such as Boyega has with the Star Wars franchise, in which he played Stormtrooper-turned-hero Finn) usually stay pretty mum about what artistic changes they would make to said franchise.

But not John.

Asked by an audience member at his spotlight panel what he would do if he were to remake the Star Wars sequels he appeared in (that is, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, respectively), Boyega was incredibly honest.

"It would be mad," said the Attack the Block star, "First of all, we’re not getting rid of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, all these people. We're not doing that. The first thing we're going to do is fulfill their story, fulfill their legacy. We're going to make a good moment of handing on the baton."

In case you've somehow avoided this area of internet discourse (I'm so jealous), Boyega is talking about the fact that the Star Wars sequels killed off original characters Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in ways that fans were... upset about. To put it mildly. But it wasn't only the legacy characters whose arcs Boyega would've changed.

"Our new characters," said Boyega, "will not be OP'd [overpowered] in these movies. They won't just grab stuff and know what to do with it. No. You've got to struggle like every other character in this franchise. I'd do that."

Even beyond character specifics, though, Boyega's Star Wars would've drawn from different sources than the new movies did.

"I'd look to the Old Republic stories," the actor continued, "And see what we can add to the continuation of that. I would definitely want to see Force Unleashed stories in there. I would try to expand the Star Wars universe as much as possible while respecting the lore. If we're expanding the lore, we have to do it in within the respective boundaries that stay true."

"But Luke Skywalker wouldn't be disappearing on a rock," concluded Boyega, "Hell no. Standing there and he's, like, a projector? I would want to give those characters way more way more."

Want more? You can watch the entire John Boyega spotlight panel at Florida Supercon 2025 on Popverse.

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.