A little over two years have passed since John Boyega’s last time in the Star Wars franchise as fan-favorite character Finn, and we haven’t had much of a chance to see what the next chapter of the 29-year-old actor’s career goes from here. Following the The Rise of Skywalker, Boyega has since starred in a couple things here and there, but his latest project really shows that this actor can lead a completely powerful dramatic performance.
CinemaBlend was among the 2022 Sundance Film Festival’s virtual audience in attendance for the first showing of 892, and I now feel as though the best may be yet to come out of John Boyega. The independent film that is part of the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition sees Boyega embody real-life U.S. Marine veteran Brian Easley and tells his tragic story as a tense thriller.
892 recounts the true events that happened in the Atlanta suburbs in 2017 when Brian Easley showed up to a Wells Fargo bank one morning and claimed he had a bomb in his backpack. Easley took two clerks hostage as he asked authorities to return to him his monthly disability check from the Department of Veteran Affairs he depended on, but by some error was not placed into his account.
The father of a young daughter and a veteran who had separated from the service with an honorable discharge back in 2005 began to panic that he would be on the streets. Brian Easley took that course of action at the bank in the hopes he would just get the money back Veteran Affairs made him jump from hoop to hoop simply to get it all cleared up. John Boyega has a lot of emotional weight to carry in 892, and not only is it completely different from anything we’ve seen him in, it also introduces a side of the actor that could spawn into a seriously awesome career.
John Boyega has been fiercely honest as he’s gained popularity as an actor. After The Rise of Skywalker led to some disappointment for fans, especially in terms of Finn’s ambiguous fate, he’s been vocal about his own thoughts about the franchise, along with sharing that starring in a franchise made him feel like he was in “luxury jail” and how he's wanted to flex different muscles as an actor. Finn was a fun-loving character, but his 892 really shows that Boyega can very much walk the walk with other types of roles.
Of course, it’s hard to forget the moment in June 2020 when John Boyega got up during a London Black Lives Matter protest and delivered an impassioned speech to a crowd. He famously said that he didn’t know if he’d have a career after speaking out about social justice, but “fuck that.” The viral video led to a number of major filmmakers to speak up in support of his efforts. The forthcoming 892 is a great indication of Boyega’s career being an exciting one to look forward to. While you wait for the film’s wide release, check out some other John Boyega movies to watch.
