Warning! SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ahead.
The secret that Finn was unable to confess to Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was not that he was secretly in love with her, as John Boyega has denied the theory on Twitter. In The Rise of Skywalker, there is a moment when Finn and Rey are trapped in quicksand while on Pasaana and they believe that they are going to be pulled under, where Finn almost confesses something to Rey but is stopped by the sand before he can get the words out.
Finn’s secret is brought up later in the film by Poe Dameron, but they are interrupted before Finn can confess. The fact that Finn specifically wanted to tell Rey the secret led to speculation that he was in love with her and wanted to let her know before they both bit the bullet. The Star Wars novels confirmed that Finn isn’t interested in Rey, but that’s something that could easily be ignored by the filmmakers if they wanted to pursue that storyline.
On Twitter, John Boyega confirmed that Finn’s secret wasn’t that he was in love with her. This matches a statement made by J.J. Abrams, who confirmed Finn’s secret during a recent Q&A session. According to Abrams, Finn’s secret is that he is Force-sensitive, which is hinted at several times in The Rise of Skywalker.
A backlash was already brewing from fans of The Last Jedi who felt that a Finn/Rey romance would be another instance of Abrams’ retconning elements from that film in The Rise of Skywalker. The Last Jedi was building up a romance between Finn and Rose Tico, yet this storyline was abandoned in The Rise of Skywalker. Rose Tico was treated badly in The Rise of Skywalker, but at least Abrams’ and Boyega’s comments have confirmed that the romance storyline hasn’t been totally washed away.
The part of the fandom that has been hoping for a Finn/Poe relationship can also be reassured that their ship hasn’t been sunk just yet. Oscar Isaac has blamed Disney for the lack of romance between Finn and Poe, but things might change further down the line and the storyline could happen in the future.
It was strange for Finn’s secret to be brought up in The Rise of Skywalker, only for it to not be resolved before the end credits. The fact that Abrams has been mentioning it to fans at events suggests that might have been resolved at one stage, but the scenes were cut and removed from the film. There could be a resolution to Finn’s secret on a future home release of The Rise of Skywalker, which could make Abrams’ and Boyega’s statements canon.
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Source: John Boyega/Twitter
