Pass The Popcorn: John Boyega Reflects On His Role As Star Wars’s New Hero

If you haven’t already oversaturated yourself with thoughts of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, then you’re in for a real treat. John Boyega, who plays the upcoming film’s primary hero Finn, sat down on camera with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss his role and the experience of not just walking onto the set of one of cinema’s most iconic franchises, but being tasked with seizing the force and owning each and every shot.

Interspersed with thrilling footage from Star Wars VII (sorry fanboys and fangirls–no new shots!), Boyega extrapolates: “J.J. Abrams sat me down and said ‘You’re the new star of Star Wars.’ I was like…what?” Everything went still for a moment in the actor’s world, but in time things were set back in motion.

Discussing his character Finn, Boyega frames him as “a stormtrooper who just doesn’t want to be in that predicament. He’s under the First Order and doesn’t agree with their terms and conditions, and so he has an absolute freak out, and that’s where we meet him.” Boyega confesses that he actually saw the “first trilogy” (Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III) before viewing the classic originals, but ultimately came to love the maverick anti-hero of The Empire Strikes Back the most. “Han Solo was the guy that was kind of on his own thing,” Boyega said. “Everybody else was trying to bring balance to the force Han Solo was just trying to make some money and get by, I relate to what he was doing.” Watch the full video interview below, and prepare yourselves for Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives December 18th.