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John Boyega has slammed Disney for 'sidelining' his Star Wars character and giving 'all the nuance' to his white co-stars Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley. The actor, 28, portrayed the franchise's first black Stormtrooper, in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and told how he thinks Disney marketed his character as being 'much more important' than he actually was. Speaking in an interview with the October issue of British GQ magazine, he said: 'You get yourself involved in projects and you're not necessarily going to like everything.

Star of the upcoming film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Daisy Ridley asserted that "everyone has an issue with Trump — every sane person anyway." Speaking with The Guardian in an interview published over the weekend, the English actress took aim at both President Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. When asked if she finds it difficult to speak out about politics given that the Star Wars franchise is owned by family-friendly Disney, Ridley said, "No. I don’t feel I have to edit what I say — the things that make me angry are the things that make...

Rev. Jesse Jackson partially credits the casting of black British actor John Boyega for the financial success of Star Wars: the Force Awakens in an op-ed piece about “Hollywood apartheid.” “For the second year in a row, no actor or actress of color has been nominated for an Academy Award. That is a shameful streak,” Jackson wrote in USA TODAY on Monday. “But the growing outcry over the whitewashing of the prestigious golden statue and the industry it celebrates is a sign of at least some progress.” Jackson wrote that minority performers are the future of the industry. “By midcentury,...

The Force Awakens opened this Friday to packed theaters across America. I haven’t seen it for a number of reasons, among which is an unwillingness to tent out for days just to buy tickets. The film will nonetheless make oodles of money, I’m sure, as Star Wars has replaced the Bible as Western civilization’s primary cultural commonality, both relevant and accessible to people across the societal spectrum. This seventh chapter of the epic space opera may be the first to steer clear of political themes. According to film critic Matt Singer, “The Force Awakens is — arguably to its detriment...

Critics screened the film earlier this week, and with the reviews rolling in, we've compiled a roundup of what they're saying, and in an effort to be as spoiler-free as possible, we only included parts that don't specifically talk about the plot. "Reinvigorating the franchise with a welcome surge of energy, warmth and excitement after the misbegotten cycle of prequels released between 1999 and 2005, incoming writer-director J.J. Abrams seems to have had the original three films firmly in mind when he embarked on this monumental new undertaking, structured as a series of clever if sometimes wobbly callbacks to a...

There were “smiling faces” from the crowds exiting the Los Angeles premiere of The Force Awakens on Monday night. Amongst these, presumably, were Disney executives ecstatic that the $4bn they paid George Lucas for franchise rights looks to have been a sound investment. Initial reactions from all three screening rooms where the film was shown for the first time – as well as from social media – suggest that JJ Abrams has the chops to please both critics and fans, and that The Force Awakens may well recoup at least half the $4bn by itself. A journalist for the Hollywood...

"George Lucas told a story about everyman, everywoman characters who were nobodies who had to step up and become somebody. The idea that there would be a new crop of nobodies in the Star Wars universe who didn't realize yet they would become somebody, that was a very powerful feeling." To create a story of the new "nobodies," Abrams wrote the Force Awakens script with Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (plus Raiders of the Lost Ark for Lucas, too). They also had the "somebodies" coming back, including Harrison Ford as Han Solo,...

An international cut of the Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens trailer was released with no warning on Friday. The teaser, which can be seen on the Japanese version of the official Star Wars website, includes new images of Rey, played by British actress Daisy Ridley, as well as Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia. There are also plenty of new actions shots and dialogue.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in just two months, and today it's finally time to see the movie's official poster. No, not the teaser poster from last year, and not the promo item handed out at D23; this is the real deal. The poster features the key members of the cast that audiences have met thus far: Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, and Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, with some other faces that you just might recognize (hi, Han and Leia). What's even more interesting is the sight of some sort of orb in the upper...

If you feel a disturbance in the Force, it’s millions of voices suddenly crying out the new title of Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. The reveal comes as the movie finishes its final day of shooting (with many more months of post-production to come.)