John Boyega as every cat in Cats makes the box office bomb much better. It was supposed to be a Christmas box office showdown for the ages when the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famed musical Cats went up against the expected blockbuster Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But when the dust cleared it was actually no contest as Rise of Skywalker pulled in a massive $177 million while Cats managed a truly pathetic $6 million.
The soundness of Cats’ defeat at the box office may have come as a shock to some, but it probably shouldn’t have after the internet’s reaction to the movie’s first trailer, a bizarre clip that elicited everything from puzzlement to outright revulsion. Even after folks raised concerns about the CGI in the trailer, Universal went ahead and released the movie unaltered, ultimately regretting their decision. After the film bombed, the studio attempted to do a U-turn by releasing a different version of the film with allegedly improved CGI but by then it was too late. The film finally limped to a worldwide gross of just $69 million, making it one of the biggest flops in recent movie history.
New special effects couldn’t save Cats from disaster, but a video just posted to Instagram suggests that another approach might have actually salvaged the film. In the clip, every character in Cats is replaced with Star Wars star Boyega, and the result is arguably a much better movie. See the hilarious video in the space below:
The real cast of Cats may include such superstars as Taylor Swift, Ian McKellen, Rebel Wilson, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Idris Elba and James Corden, but the above clip makes it apparent that they were all miscast, and that Boyega should have played every character instead. Boyega’s face acting in the clip is truly amazing as he embodies every emotion in the movie, while the sound of Hudson’s rendition of the show’s big song “Memory” comes (somewhat hilariously) booming out of his mouth.
Of course, after the way his movie Rise of Skywalker trounced Cats at the box office, Boyega could be accused of throwing some very unnecessary shade here. But it’s good to remember that Boyega has not been shy about shading Star Wars either, recently making it plain that he wasn’t happy with the way his character Finn was treated in The Last Jedi, while also making it very clear that he has no interest in returning as Finn in any possible Disney+ spinoff. Though Boyega is clearly not up for a Finn streaming show, perhaps he’d be game for a cat-based musical, as he seems to truly love getting into the spirit of a big Broadway production like Cats.
More: Why The Cats Movie Is So Bad
Source: John Boyega/Instagram
