Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker set up Finn being Force-sensitive, yet none did anything with it, thus wasting that part of his story. Years after the prequel trilogy came to an end, and following the acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney began working on a new Star Wars trilogy with the purpose of closing the Skywalker saga, introducing a new generation of heroes and villains, and with that keep on expanding the Star Wars universe.
The first entry in the sequel trilogy was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which introduced viewers to Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger from Jakku with a mysterious past; Finn (John Boyega), a reformed stormtrooper from the First Order; and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), leader of the Knights of Ren and a high-ranking member of the First Order. Star Wars: The Force Awakens left many questions to be answered in the subsequent movies and teased some big moments in the arcs of these new characters, particularly Finn. The second movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, provided some answers but they weren’t well-received by fans, and it failed at picking up some of the loose threads left by the first movie. The final entry in the trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, retconned the previous movie and attempted to close some of those loose threads from the first movie, but only ended up wasting some important elements, especially one in Finn’s story.
In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, as Rey, Finn, and the rest of the group sank into quicksand, Finn was ready to confess something to Rey, which he ultimately never revealed. It was later confirmed that Finn was going to tell Rey that he’s Force-sensitive, and later on in the movie, there was a moment in which Finn used the Force to know where to lead the group, and then sensed Rey’s death through it. This wasn’t the first time Finn’s Force-sensitivity was hinted at, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens sold the idea of Finn having some connection with the Force, only for that part to be completely left aside through the whole sequel trilogy.
When Disney’s marketing campaign for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was at its peak, the studio sold the idea of Finn being the new Jedi in the Star Wars universe, showing him using Luke’s lightsaber and being quite skillful at it. However, the Mouse House ended up turning all its attention to Rey and focused more on giving her a backstory than continuing with what it had already teased with Finn. J.J. Abrams going back to this side of Finn’s story in The Rise of Skywalker could have done a bit of justice to the character and could have also been an opportunity to explore his backstory, but Abrams failed at giving it a resolution and ultimately wasted what he had set up in the first movie and then again in the final one. Finn was supposed to be the one hero to change the Star Wars universe for the better, being one of the few black characters with a prominent role in the saga, but the studio ultimately failed him and wasted a very interesting part of his story.
With the Skywalker saga now closed, Finn’s story has now come to an end as well – at least on the big screen. The Star Wars universe continues expanding on other media, particularly television through Disney+ and in literature, so Finn could return at some point and his story could be expanded, including his connection with the Force, the origins of it, and if he got any sort of training after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
