John Boyega is open about the fact he’s not a Star Trek fan, but has revealed the one thing he believes Star Wars can learn from its rival science fiction franchise.
Boyega, who famously played Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, told an audience at Dragon Con that he simply doesn’t like Star Trek — something he often tells fans at booths — because there’s too much talking. But, as reported by PopVerse, Boyega admitted that Star Wars could actually learn from this, suggesting Finn, Rey, and friends could do with the time to chat about things free from the threat of Force chokes and blaster fire.
“I’m an old school Star Wars fan, and if you’re a Trekkie and you’ve met me at the booths, you would find that I would mention that I don’t like Star Trek,” Boyega said.
“I just think that on the Trekkie side they like to talk about it. On the Star Wars side, we just get active. With Star Wars, you’ve got to talk while the war is going on.
“In Star Trek, they give you time to have discussions. I think there’s something Star Wars can learn from that actually. In terms of me appearing in [Star Trek], I’ve got to stay on-team. I’m a lightsaber guy.”
Boyega has been doing the cons this year and openly chatting about his time on Star Wars. Last month, at Florida Supercon 2025, he said that Disney’s sequel trilogy would have looked very different if he had been in charge.
Fans “would have had a completely different thing” if Boyega had been allowed to become a producer on the films, which were ultimately released to a mixed reception from fans. Key to the changes Boyega would make, he said, would be a different handling of the saga’s original heroes Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, who were killed off in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, respectively.
And in August, at Fan Expo Boston, Boyega said he expected a more dramatic relationship to develop between his character Finn and Daisy Ridley’s Rey throughout the saga’s sequel trilogy — rather than the simple friendship viewers got instead.
Boyega said he had picked up on hints that his character was secretly Force-sensitive from the script of his first movie in the series, The Force Awakens, and believed that this plotline would be developed further in subsequent films — before taking more of a tragic turn.
Comparing his idea for Finn and Rey’s relationship to Star Wars’ classic Obi-Wan and Darth Vader showdown, Boyega said he thought the pair were due to become antagonists — which would certainly have provided Finn with more of a story arc.
While Daisy Ridley’s Rey is set to return to the Star Wars universe in a new sequel, there’s no word on Boyega following suit. Star Wars continues next year with The Mandalorian and Grogu, then in 2027 with Star Wars: Starfighter starring Ryan Gosling.
Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
