ABOVE: John Boyega as Finn and Oscar Isaac as Poe. Image via Twitter.
Star Wars” fans hoping to see a romance between dashing fighter pilot Poe Dameron and heroic ex-stormtrooper Finn got some bad news today – it’s not going to happen.
At least, it won’t be happening in the upcoming “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” due to arrive in movie theaters on December 20, according to three people who should definitely know – actors Oscar Isaac and John Boyega, who play Poe and Finn, respectively, and the film’s director, J. J. Abrams.In an interview with Variety, Isaac expressed his personal disappointment that the two characters’ “natural chemistry,” immediately noted by fans when they were introduced in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” did not get the romantic development it deserved in the subsequent films.
“Personally, I kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would’ve been taken further in the other films, but I don’t have control,” said the fan favorite actor. “It seemed like a natural progression, but sadly enough it’s a time when people are too afraid, I think, of… I don’t know what.”
He went on to add that the “ambiguity” of the two men’s relationship could allow room for people to see themselves represented, before concluding, “But if they would’ve been boyfriends, that would have been fun.”
Boyega commented, “They’ve always had a quite loving and open relationship in which it wouldn’t be too weird if it went beyond it – but at the same time, they are just platonic at the moment.”
As for Abrams, who directed the new film as well as co-writing it with Chris Terrio, he kept things vague while still effectively closing the door on the idea of a Poe-Finn love story.“That relationship to me is a far deeper one than a romantic one,” the filmmaker said. “It is a deep bond that these two have, not just because of the trial by fire in which they met, but also because of their willingness to be as intimate as they are, as afraid as they, as unsure as they are, and still be bold, and still be daring and brave.”
Still, Abrams continued by saying that he has always wanted the people of “Star Wars” to look “more the way the world looks than not.”
“And in the case of the LGBTQ community,” he said, “it was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they’re being represented in the film.”
When pressed to clarify whether that means there will be a queer character in “The Rise of Skywalker,” Abrams displayed his usual reticence to give away too much, by answering with a smile, “I will say I’m giving away nothing about what happens in the movie – but I did say what I just said.”
The idea of a romance between Poe and Finn sprang up within the “Star Wars” fan community with the release of “The Force Awakens” in 2015, when the two characters were “shipped” as #FinnPoe on social media. The notion had enough momentum that LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy told Spanish-language news site Ecartelera in 2017 that the franchise “had talked about” pursuing it in the saga’s future storyline.
