Every Star Wars trilogy needs its own romance. The Original Trilogy had Han Solo and Leia Organa (let’s just continue pretending like the Leia and Luke kiss never happened), the Prequel Trilogy had Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala, and the Sequel Trilogy had Rey and Kylo Ren… or rather, snuck it in at the last minute. Reylo fans finally got what they wanted when Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver’s characters kissed towards the end of The Rise of Skywalker. However, John Boyega is definitely not a fan of this ship and gave an amazing explanation for why he doesn’t like the pairing.
This topic came up when Boyega was speaking with Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz at C2E2 and he was asked during the audience Q&A if Finn and Poe Dameron would have accepted the relationship between Rey and Ben Solo had the latter lived. The Finn actor started off by saying:
No… I mean, look, straight ladies in the room, when he is pursuing you, him trying to kill you is not a part of the romance. Chasing him and saying, ‘We can become something powerful!’ I’m there like, ‘I wouldn’t tell my sisters to do that.’
I mean… he’s not wrong. Kylo Ren started off his “relationship” with Rey in The Force Awakens by kidnapping and mentally torturing her, and by the end of the movie, they’d lightsaber dueled and Rey had given him the scar on his eye. Their relationship became complicated in The Last Jedi when Rey and Kylo kept trying to sway the other to join their side, and then The Rise of Skywalker revealed that the two shared a Force dyad with each other. But the point still stands that for the majority of time they knew each other, Rey and Kylo were in conflict, so Boyega’s not wrong for being leery about them getting romantic with each other.
Ultimately Ben Solo turned his back on his Kylo Ren identity in The Rise of Skywalker and raced to Exegol to help Rey fight Palpatine and the Sith Eternal. So Rey was right about there still being good in him, which John Boyega acknowledged in the following comment, though he thinks Finn would have tried to put the kibosh on her and Ben’s smooch time had he been near them on Exegol:
That kind of reflects off of the spiritual element to Star Wars, the fact that she recognized the good and was fighting for it. But if I was Finn there, Finn should have had a line where he said, ‘Girl, leave him be. Come home with me.’
Rey died after reflecting her grandaddy Palpatine’s Force lightning back at him to kill him for good (fingers crossed), but Ben Solo then used the Force to revive her at the cost of his own life. So their time together as love interests was short-lived, and if Boyega had his way, it wouldn’t have happened at all. It’s fine if you disagree with him about this, although I’m sure there are plenty of Star Wars fans who agree with the actor that Rey and Finn should have been paired together instead.
Feel free to use your Disney+ subscription to revisit The Rise of Skywalker or any of the other Star Wars movies. Otherwise, get ready for the franchise set in a galaxy far, far away to return to the big screen when The Mandalorian & Grogu opens on May 22, 2026.
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