Spoilers Ahead for Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
The Aftermath of The Force Awakens has been filled with thoughts and speculation on Rey, Snoke, Luke, and Kylo Ren. But one character has seemingly flown under the radar: the film’s second lead, Finn, played by John Boyega.
Not much information is given about Finn in the film. He was taken into the First Order as a child, perhaps even in infancy, and designated FN-2187. He trained as a Stormtrooper (specializing in sanitation, apparently) until he saw the terrors of war first hand, at which point he defected, freeing Resistance pilot Poe Dameron in the process, who in turn gave him the name “Finn.” Then The Force Awakens happens.
But is there more to his backstory? Follow me down the rabbit hole with the Top 5 Theories:
1. Finn Calrissian
Let’s get this one out of the way first. There is one prominent black character from the original Star Wars trilogy, and that’s Lando Calrissian. So, when people saw that one of the new leads was black, rumors started to buzz about a possible relation. The internet then blew up when a Finn puzzle on Amazon seemingly identified him as Lando’s son. This was quickly debunked however, and turned out to be a ploy for the listing to boost sales. The current Amazon listing by Disney holds no mention of the former administrator of Cloud City.
Do the rumors hold any weight though? Empire establishes Lando as a suave, striking man with a sharp tongue and a way with the ladies. Surely he had many “conquests” throughout the galaxy, and one would assume a con-man wouldn’t stick around long enough to know if a son came of it. Is it possible that one of Lando’s ladies (post-Jedi) gave birth without him knowing? Yes, it’s entirely possible. Is it likely? Not very. The Force Awakens did a fine job expanding and displaying diversity in the galaxy, and received praise for it. How would it look if their one new black character was simply a descendent of their last one? It would only serve to make the galaxy smaller.
2. Mandalorian
Could Finn be of Mandalorian descent? It’s a vague notion, but better than him just being a simple nobody. His heritage could explain a lot about his story arc. First and foremost, it could explain how he came under the First Order’s thumb. Maybe, citing the success of the Grand Army of the Republic, the First Order wanted to draft soldiers from Mandalore, seeing them as easy to control.
But Mandalorians aren’t all so easy to manipulate. Star Wars: Rebels has shown that not all of the Mandalorian clones went along quietly as the Republic turned into the Empire. In fact, Captain Rex, one of the most prominent soldiers of the Clone Wars, turned his back on his “destiny” and later joined the Rebellion. So being of Mandalorian descent may not only explain how Finn came to be part of the First Order, but may explain how he was able to defect when his own morals are compromised.
3. Finn is…just FN-2187
Think of all the major characters without any special backstory in the Star Wars universe. Lando Calrissian. Chewbacca. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Han Solo. Most fan favorite characters are just random residents of the galaxy who become ancillary characters to the Skywalkers. Maybe Finn is just that: a supporting character to the Skywalkers (Rey, in particular, if you support that theory).
Maybe his family will come into play at some point, but they may just be more new characters introduced to the saga. Hopefully this is the case; this new trilogy looks to expand the universe, and the way to do that is introduce characters without ties to the past.
4. Son of Sana Starros
If the name doesn’t sound familiar, perhaps “Sana Solo” will. She’s the character from Marvel’s Star Wars comic that generated all the media buzz a few months ago, claiming to be Han Solo’s wife. Spoiler alert: she’s not. She’s just a former associate of his who posed as his wife for a job.
But she exists in the canon, and is around the same age as Han/Luke/Leia, which means her son would be around the same age as Finn by the time of the movie. Lucasfilm had to have known that the introduction of Sana as Han’s wife would make news. Tons of fans now know that Sana exists, even if they don’t read the comic. Perhaps this was a genius marketing move by the Lucasfilm Story Group to secretly introduce Finn’s mother leading up to the film’s release. It wouldn’t be unheard of; they introduced Poe’s parents in the Shattered Empire comic.
5. Finn Windu?
Let’s stamp a big “un-freaking-likely” on this one. But, similar to Lando, Mace is a rare black leading character in the franchise, so the rumors are out there.
Jedi have broken the “no love” rule before. The whole main saga relies on Anakin’s love for Padmé. Luke has loved in the old Expanded Universe, and may have even loved in the new canon. Even Obi-Wan has felt the temptation, as shown in The Clone Wars, and the theory that Rey is his descendant has really picked up steam.
But Mace was always a stickler for the rules, he wouldn’t stray from the Order. Maybe Finn could be a distant relation, his great nephew twice removed or something. But this goes back to the Lando problem, in that it would only serve in making the galaxy smaller.
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What do you think? Are there other characters from the new Expanded Universe that you think have a relation to Finn? Maybe someone from Rebels, or the Aftermath novel? Let us know in the comments below!
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