Tom Cruise has never been in a Star Wars movie, but he’s still made a huge impact on a galaxy far, far away. Turns out we have the Mission: Impossible star to thank, at least in part, for John Boyega joining the Skywalker Saga.
During a panel at Emerald City Comic Con, Boyega spoke about how he was cast as Finn, First Order deserter turned Resistance member, in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. “I’m thankful to Tom Cruise, who loved Attack the Block,” he says, per Popverse. “He was editing Mission: Impossible at the time with J.J. Abrams. Tom told J.J., ‘You’ve got to watch this kid in Attack the Block’.”
Abrams did, and a few years later, Boyega got the call to join Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Coming out in 2011, Attack the Black follows a group of teenagers in South London trying to stop an alien invasion. Boyega plays the lead, Moses, in his feature debut.
Even though he’s now got a whole Star Wars trilogy under his belt, as well as Pacific Rim: Uprising, The Woman King, They Cloned Tyrone and plenty of other noteworthy projects, Attack the Block stands as a highlight of his. It’s a fun, relatively grounded take on the arrival of UFOs, focusing on how inner-city communities can come together amid crisis.
It’s written and directed by Joe Cornish, who’d go on to co-write Ant-Man for the MCU and oversee Lockwood and Co for Netflix. Getting the stamp of approval from Tom Cruise on your first major motion picture is impressive as is, having that lead to something like Star Wars is nothing short of remarkable.
Although fellow Sequel Trilogy star Daisy Ridley is signed up for a return to a long, long time ago, there’s been no word on if Boyega will ever step back into the universe. If not, becoming part of the Rebel Alliance at the behest of Ethan Hunt makes one hell of a story.
You can see Cruise portray Ethan on the big screen again when Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens on May 23, 2025. Keep an eye our guide to all the new Star Wars movies and TV shows for when Finn might reappear.