The Disney “Star Wars” trilogy has become so divisive that some of its stars are now beginning to drop the sales pitch and openly mock it.
On Wednesday, actor John Boyega (who played the character Finn) nearly broke the internet when he tweeted out a not-so-cryptic meme trashing the Disney trilogy for how it handled the supposed “romance” between Kylo Ren and Rey – an unlikely duo that superfans have since referred to by the moniker “Reylo.” Take a look:
Star Wars romance 😗👀🙂 pic.twitter.com/ngB6XEMMS2
— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) December 31, 2019
As the meme shows, across all three movies, the “Reylo” dynamic has unfolded rather unevenly, with Kylo Ren beginning as an oppressive villain and then all of the sudden transforming into Rey’s love-interest by the third film. Twitter users heaped scores of praise on Boyega for essentially throwing caution to the wind and saying what was already on everyone’s mind.
“Following John Boyega‘s example, I am taking the final eight hours of the decade to be unruly as f**k. No reason. No mercy. 2020 is about healing but tonight I WILL be causing problems on purpose,” said one Twitter user.
“John Boyega had to deal with waves of racist bile from star wars fans for years, watch Finn excluded from toys and edited out of posters and had his storyline reduced to an extra and now that he’s free from the mouse he’s letting it all out. Good for him,” tweeted another user.
“John Boyega and Oscar Isaac just going full ‘f**k it, I’m done w/ Disney, I’m just gonna say whatever I want’ is delightful and has big Carrie Fisher energy,” tweeted another.
“Man… John Boyega deserves better than just repeatedly screaming ‘REY!’ in every movie. A great actor wasted in a trilogy because it had no plan,” tweeted another.
Of course, John Boyega expressed some dismay for the way Disney handled the franchise during the promotion for “Rise of Skywalker” when he hinted at his disappointment with the previous installment “The Last Jedi.”
“‘The Force Awakens’ I think was the beginning of something quite solid. ‘The Last Jedi,’ if I’m being honest, I’d say that was feeling a bit iffy for me,” said Boyega during the promotional tour. “I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of the choices in that, and that’s something that I spoke to Mark [Hamill] a lot about and we had conversations about it. And it was hard for all of us, because we were separated. I guess the original Star Wars films there was much more of a trio feel where it was essentially about Luke’s journey, but Han and Leia there was a strong dynamic, which I think, I don’t know how quickly we’re going to be able to establish that longterm dynamic with [The Rise of Skywalker]. But if it’s exploring that dynamic, then that would be cool.”
“The Rise of Skywalker” ended up being the worst-reviewed mainline “Star Wars” movie since “The Phantom Menace,” though the poor reception from critics has not tanked the movie’s box office performance. As of this writing, “The Rise of Skywalker” has grossed over $761.5 million worldwide. According to Forbes, however, the movie will neither top “The Last Jedi” nor “The Force Awakens.”