Alan Dean Foster reveals that Finn and Rey were always supposed to be the romance of the sequel trilogy and that he was forced to take the budding stages of it from his novelization when adapting JJ's original screenplay
Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization author Alan Dean Foster says there was “obviously the beginnings of a relationship” between Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) that failed to materialize over the Star Wars sequel trilogy — and a hint at that relationship was removed from his novel. The author of the original Star Wars novelization and sequel novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, Foster agreed to write the novel adaptation of filmmaker J.J. Abrams’ franchise revival The Force Awakens. When he attempted to water seeds that were planted for an eventual Finn-Rey romance, Foster says he was forced to remove a scene relating to the blossoming relationship:
“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,” Foster told Midnight’s Edge. “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.”
“There were a couple of things in there, and a couple of things that happened subsequently that bothered me. I’m going to tell you one thing they made me take out because enough time has passed, I don’t think it matters,” Foster said, adding only that there was “obviously the beginnings of a relationship” between Finn and Rey.
“I expected to see that developed further in Episode VIII [The Last Jedi],” Foster said. “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.”
But Finn and Rey spend much of The Last Jedi separated, and Finn is linked romantically to franchise newcomer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran). Foster reveals he attempted to retcon the Rian Johnson-directed middle chapter with an unused treatment for Episode IX, calling The Last Jedi a “terrible film” and “a terrible Star Wars movie.”
So are we finally done here?! 5 years later. 5 damn years later! It’s over. We got the truth! Finn and Rey were supposed to be the romance of the sequel trilogy but because Disney Lucasfilm is racist AF it didn’t happen and it was taken out.
I’m done hearing the “Oh I don’t see it” or “It’s all made up”. No, the truth is EVERYTHING but Finn and Rey was either made up or shameless pandering that was not part of JJ and Kasdan’s story of The Force Awakens at all.
It wasn’t JJ Abram who went against Finnrey
It wasn’t Lawrence Kasdan who went against Finnrey.
It wasn’t Chris Terrio who went against Finnrey
It was Disney Lucasfilm.
