‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: What Was Finn Going to Tell Rey?

What seemed like a big thing never saw a clear payoff in the latest “Star Wars” film

What did Finn tell Rey Hug Poe Star Wars Rise of Skywalker
Lucasfilm/Disney

(This post contains spoilers for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)

There’s a lot to take in in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” and it can be easy to forget half of what happened in that movie just because there’s just too many things to remember. It’s a lot! It’s a lot. Most of the things we really struggle with take place in the early parts of the film — like the one this article is about, which involves something Finn (John Boyega) wanted to say but then never actually said.

Early on in “The Rise of Skywalker,” Finn, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac) and droids BB-8 and C-3PO visit the desert planet Pasaana (aka the desert planet that looked exactly like Tatooine but was not actually Tatooine) in search of an important clue that will help them find the location of somehow-still-alive Emperor Palpatine. After some minor adventures, the group ends up trapped in what appears to be quicksand, at which point Finn turns to Rey and says he has something very important to tell her. However, they sink below the surface before Finn can say whatever it is he needed to say.

Luckily it turns out that what looked like deadly quicksand was just the ground sitting above a submerged spaceship where the clue the heroes need just happens to be hidden. While they’re milling about the ship, Rey brings up Finn’s aborted confession, but they drop the subject after Finn essentially says he doesn’t want to talk about it in front of Poe.

Later on in the film, Finn and Poe end up (briefly) captured by First Order forces and sentenced to summary execution. As it looks like they’re about to be shot, Poe tries to get Finn to tell him whatever it was Finn intended to tell Rey, but Finn once again refuses. They’re saved at the last minute, but the matter is again dropped since they have to fight their way past a lot of First Order troops in order to escape.

Unfortunately, whatever it was Finn needed to say is never brought up again. Lots of absolutely crazy things happen — including the out-of-nowhere reveal that Rey is, somehow, Palpatine’s granddaughter — but we never actually get to find out what the hell Finn wanted to tell her. It’s weird to set up a mystery that will never be solved, since this is apparently the final installment in what Disney/Lucasfilm retroactively calls the “Skywalker Saga,” and it had fans speculating like crazy after the movie’s launch last week.

And, seriously, what the hell was Finn going to say? Well, thanks to some characteristically (and frustratingly) vague comments by director JJ Abrams over the weekend, we have one possible answer. Yes, possible. Twitter user @ar1aster, also known as “Kaila Ren,” reported Friday that she attended an Academy screening of “The Rise of Skywalker,” and afterward asked Abrams about it. Of course, Abrams’ response was typically in full mystery box mode.

“JJ said it meant to him that he wanted to tell Rey he was Force-sensitive, but purposely left it open-ended,” Kaila Ren said.

Representatives for Abrams and Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap, but based on this report, it seems even the director and co-writer of the film has not taken a definitive stance on what Finn wanted to say. Which, OK, but also weird.

But it turns out there might be an actual answer to the question, or at least, we might have an answer to the question of what Finn was not going to tell Rey. Early Monday morning, Boyega tweeted to no one in particular that “No… Finn wasn’t going to say I love you before sinking!” Sorry, #FinnRey shippers.

So there you have it. Kind of. Maybe. Sort of. Hope that helps!

Comments