Every Emerald City Comic Con I’ve been to has had one guest I’ve had to see. This year, it was none other than John Boyega; on Saturday, arguably the biggest day of the con, I beat the crowds to get into Boyega’s spotlight panel. Moderated by Popverse’s Ashley V. Robinson, the panel consisted of fan questions sent in online, covering his work in the Star Wars trilogy sequel, Attack the Block, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and The Woman King.
A sequel to Attack the Block has been in the works for a while, but Boyega revealed that he recently received a new script from Joe Cornish. He also said that Attack the Block took off with American audiences due to Redbox; I can attest to that since that’s how I watched it with friends in college.
Other Attack the Block stories Boyega shared included the fact that he bonded with his cast members over riding bikes and a piece of advice Nick Frost gave him about learning lines that he uses to this day. But the biggest surprise was that Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams had been watching Attack the Block when filming Mission: Impossible III and Cruise told Abrams that he should keep an eye out for Boyega. The rest, as they say, is history since Abrams tapped Boyega to play Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
This led to a funny story from Boyega about shooting the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens. Turns out he did at least 50 takes of the scene where Finn shoots up from the sand, which wasn’t a pleasant thing to do in full stormtrooper armor. But thankfully, he got to have a little more action in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which led to another funny story; he lost the script for Rise at his new house due to a mouse. “I saw a mouse and said, ‘I don’t live here anymore.'” Boyega said with a laugh.
Boyega had two more Star Wars-related memories that he could recall perfectly: taking Harrison Ford out for dinner and a tough day of shooting where the late, great Carrie Fisher got him some candy despite a strict training regimen.
“Carrie represented freedom and being able to be yourself…she had an ‘I didn’t give a sh@t attitude,'” Boyega said.
He would later reveal that his favorite Star Wars films are Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Rogue One, that he still plays Knights of the Old Republic and The Force Unleashed II, and he’d love a red lightsaber. “It’s a cool color!”
Other than Boyega’s pitch-perfect impressions of folks, I think what kept the audience engaged was the fact that he wore his nerddom on his sleeve. He said his favorite animes were My Hero Academia and Naruto Shippuden. He wants to do a Blade cosplay one day. He said that if he had one superpower, it would be teleportation so he could attend more cons. If it weren’t for the stage and hundreds of people, it felt like the kind of conversation you’d have with your best friend.
In the future, Boyega will focus on producing films through his Upper Room label. He has a few projects in the works, including, in his words, a historical drama, horror and science fiction stories, and a ‘grounded superhero story.’ He also revealed that his dream role would be Othello, leading Robinson to suggest that Oscar Issac should play Iago.
“You should be a producer!” Boyega joked.
But in truth, I’d watch the hell out of that movie, and I’m glad I was in the room to hear Boyega talk about it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.