Disney Removed Rey And Finn's Romance From 'The Force Awakens' Novelization
Some of the best Star Wars stories are in the books and comics of the franchise. While much of the older such material is now the non-canon Star Wars Expanded Universe, rebranded Legends after Disney's acquisition, post-merger books are considered canon.
A veteran movie novelization author, the excellent Alan Dean Foster recently revealed some of the hard choices he had to make for his recent Star Wars book based on the movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Some of these decisions show a further marginalization of Finn at the direction of Disney.
Foster recently spoke with Midnight's Edge on YouTube at length about his career, taking questions from the audience as well. He explained his process for screenplay adaptations.
"I did my usual thing when I do these adaptations of trying to fix things that I think need fixing in the story and fixing in the science. Not so much with the characters because the characters are fairly well-established in a screenplay. Some things they said to take out, and some things they left alone. Some of the things they said to take out I thought were silly and would really have improved the book if I had been able to leave them in the book, but I can't talk about those."
Later on, Foster revealed a few more things he removed from recent Star Wars adaptations at the studio's direction. They asked him to eliminate a romantic plot point between Finn and Rey.
"I'm going to tell you one thing they made me take out because enough time has passed, I don't think it matters…First thing was, there was obviously the beginnings of a relationship between John Boyega's character and Daisy Ridley's character [Rey]. I expected to see that developed further in Episode VIII [The Last Jedi]. And zero happened with it. And we all know why zero happened with it — and there's no need to go into it in-depth — but that's, sadly, just the way things are."
Foster also removed a callback moment to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
"There's a scene in the film and in the book where Rey has come aboard the Millennium Falcon, and Han Solo can't get things to work, and she fixes it ... Han Solo says something to the effect of, 'good work' or 'good job,' reluctantly, he says it. And then I had him say, 'Don't get cocky, kid.' Which, of course, is a throwback to what he says to Luke in the first film. I thought that was a wonderful way of connecting the character to the first film and the first story. I thought fans would love that, and they made me take it out."
Though kind of annoying, the removal of the callback scene is far less impactful than the removal of the budding romance scene. Full disclosure, I am not a fan of romance shoved into my space sagas. I wholly blame Star Wars for this because I always liked how Leia and Han's relationship brewed slowly over three movies. From Foster's comments, something similar was initially in the works for Finn and Rey.
When the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII dropped, Finn's character looked like an integral part of the storyline. As the third and final trilogy progressed, it was painfully evident that he was not. It is no secret that John Boyega was not happy with how Disney handled Finn's character in the Star Wars franchise. Boyega recently opened up about his true feelings regarding his experiences working on the Star Wars films. His comments were met with support and outrage from across the fanbase.
His frustrations were not dissimilar to those experienced by other creative persons of color. These issues have been around for a long time. The list of such treatment continues to grow as more come forward to share their experiences. Studios are finally attempting to address concerns rather than suppress or deny them. However, this will not happen overnight.
Can Things Change?
During a roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, Jordan Peele talked about some of the notes received from Comedy Central executives for his show, Key & Peele. Peele lauded the network for allowing and sometimes pushing Peele and his partner Keegan-Michael Key on their show's writing and direction. He joked that when it came to some of their sketches' racial content, they could always play the race card because there were no black executives to contradict them. Another guest in the roundtable, Don Cheadle, chimed in with Peele that if they ever did hire a black executive, they might finally get called on some of their choices. Peele added, "Thank God, Hollywood does not hire black executives." Cheadle said jokingly, "You're safe. That'll never happen." While the whole exchange was tongue in cheek, there was an underlying current of painful truth in their statements like all great comedy.
Fast forward to 2020, and things are progressing, albeit glacially. More high profile BIPOC creatives are taking a stand. Thanks to brave voices like those of John Boyega, Shonda Rhimes, Robert Leonard, and Ray Fisher, we are now finally hearing more about the true nature of the BIPOC Hollywood experience. Actual change will only occur once the talent roster in the executive suites features the same representation the studios are attempting to showcase on screen.
UCLA's Hollywood Diversity Report from February of 2020 reveals the following from its review of eleven major and midsize film studios. Led by Dr. Darnell Hunt, Dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA, researchers found that 91% of studio heads are white. The percentage is even higher, one level down at 93%; two levels down, the percentage is 86% white. Even if studio boards wanted to promote voices of color from within their ranks, they would have a tough time doing so with their current talent bench. With Jordan Peele's enormous post-Key & Peele success, he may become the outside solution to black representation in the studio executive suites.
Foster has his own fight with Disney right now over money owed for his other work. I sincerely hope he and the other authors can reach a fair agreement with Disney about their previous work. Foster did not have to add fuel to the already burning BIPOC fire. Many of us are glad he did bring it to our attention. As more BIPOC voices come forward, we may finally see some changes in how our stories are told even in galaxies far, far, away.