Finn is a wounded man in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, says John Boyega

Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor John Boyega revealed that his character, Finn, is on a long road to recovery, physically and emotionally, in The Last Jedi.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly posted online Tuesday, actor John Boyega revealed that his character, Finn is a wounded man in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

We last left Finn in The Force Awakens on a hospital bed, where he was in a coma due to his wounds from Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. If you watch the lightsaber battle between Finn and Kylo on Starkiller Base closely, it looks like Kylo’s blade slashes up Finn’s spine. A blow like that means nerve damage and a lot of rehabilitation, even in a galaxy with technology superior to ours.

In addition, Boyega says, lightsaber wounds are more dangerous than others:

"“Once it’s in, it continues to burn the skin and the cells. It’s not a piece of flame that whacks your body. It’s not something that works like a stab wound. It’s really brutal,” the actor says."

Image credit: Lucasfilm (GIF by David Harris)

Remember the suit we saw an unconscious Finn wearing in the first Last Jedi trailer? According to what Boyega told Vanity Fair and EW, that apparatus is a bacta suit which to help him recover. After he comes out of the coma, however, the challenge to keep him alive and mobile doesn’t end:

"“There’s some additional few things that need to be done to make him mobile. He’s definitely in a place where he needs some help,” Boyega says."

Disability is an interesting direction to take Finn in The Last Jedi. We’ve seen many characters throughout the Star Wars saga who lost arms, legs and vital organs and still managed to survive. Whatever “additional few things” Finn needs to get him on his feet, they aren’t visible from the front as you can see from his photo in Vanity Fair‘s The Last Jedi spread below. Perhaps he carries a cane throughout part of the film. Though I imagine he won’t carry one long since such an accessory would likely hinder his actions on his adventure with Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico.

Image credit: Vanity Fair (photograph by Annie Leibovitz)

But don’t expect Finn to be an invalid for all of his screentime:

"“It’s going to take him some time to get back on the ball. But when he does… oh, he does,” Boyega says."

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Finn has a lot to look forward to awake and energetic. There’s his mission with Rose, which I mentioned above and which Vanity Fair’s new The Last Jedi article says takes place behind enemy lines. He also has a lot of fans in the Resistance. In fact, Boyega told EW that in The Last Jedi, Finn is finally a “big deal” just like he originally told Han Solo he was.

"“Imagine that – you get taken down by Kylo Ren…Think about what the gossip’s going to be like in the Resistance. ‘Oh, that’s the guy that got slashed down by Kylo?’”"

And so it goes. Finn now has a lot to live up to. He is almost the Harry Potter of the Star Wars universe now. He fought the infamous Kylo Ren and lived. It will be enlightening to see how he deals with his new fame.

One thing we do know is that Finn is likely to be back to his old funny self eventually. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson told Vanity Fair that he wants to maintain the humor J.J. Abrams established in his Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. The biggest comic relief in that film was Finn, so expect more lighthearted good times from that party, in spite of his injury.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres in theaters on December 15, 2017.