Star Wars Episode VII: Is Finn the next Jar Jar Binks?

Before anyone gets all nuts about me comparing Finn to Jar Jar, I do in fact remember that when Jar Jar came out, everyone thought he was supposed to be Jamaican because of his crazy accent, thought he was a crude black stereotype, and compared him to Step 'n' Fetchit, Amos and Andy, and others. This isn't about that. I'm not calling Finn a token black guy or a walking stereotype or anything. I haven't seen the movie, I can't make those claims. No, I'm here talking about merchandising. Star Wars and merchandising, after all, go hand in hand. 



This writing was inspired by my recent trip to Disneyland. Disney, as we all know by this point, acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise a few years ago, and its through their divine corporate influence that we are graced with a new trilogy of films. As such, we now have the park carrying action figures, costumes, and other toys that are promoting the upcoming release of Episode VII, The Force Awakens. I went into the Downtown Disney mega store to look for a figure of Kylo Ren for a buddy of mine, but to no avail. What I found was Finn. Rows of Finn. Walls and walls of Finn. He, and a few random alien droid wranglers, where all that graced the shelves. 

Since then, this has happened a couple of times. I go into Toys R Us, and they have some of the Star Wars battle gear figures left, but they're all Finn with arctic gear. Walmart, shortly after a restock on the Black Series figures? Already sold out... except for Finn. Everywhere you look there are basically three characters being marketed for Episode VII: Kylo Ren, Rey, and Finn (Captain Phasma occasionally). Whenever you can buy items of any of those figures, Kylo Ren and Rey are sold out, but not poor Finn. 

Its easy to draw comparisons between this and when Episode I came out in the summer of '99. Everyone was hyped Star Wars stuff was everywhere and on everything. A decade after the prequel trilogy ends, and we have a similar slew of new products, and Kylo Ren is being pushed just as hard as Darth Maul was in his day, on T-shirts, posters, mugs, toys, etc, even before we know the character. And at the time, Jar Jar was being pushed just as hard as Darth Maul. Plush dolls, kids books, food, shampoos, bandaids, everything had Jar Jar on it. Including my favorite, the Jar Jar candy tongue. 

Of course, as we all know, Jar Jar didn't exactly take off with the public, and for years afterwards, stores were trying to get rid of their Binks toys in clearance aisles across the country. 

Will the same fate await Finn? Hopefully he won't be relegated to discount bins everywhere, and hopefully he won't be as annoying as Jar Jar. But for the moment, he's the victim of a huge and possibly premature marketing campaign, when all anyone wants based solely on visuals is the bad guys. And really, what do we know about the character? He gets a lightsaber at one point, which is potentially cool, but aside from that, his portrayal isn't exactly flattering. The Force Awakens could be changed to The Adventures of Finn: Jumpiest Black Guy in the Universe and it wouldn't seem far off from what we've been shown. Who wants to buy toys of that? 

Hopefully Finn will see his luck turned around. His actor, John Boyega, was really great in Attack the Block, and I'd like to see him do well. But if not, well Finn, we'll see you in the bargain bins soon. And at least you didn't suffer the humiliation of a candy tongue, or a satanic doll that kids used to masturbate. Small favors. 

UPDATE:  After seeing the movie, I like Finn. I don't like everything they did with him, like the 'Droid Please' line and a few of his more excitable moments. Despite getting some chuckles from my audiences, I think those were examples of Disney trying to be 'street' and not mixing him well with the rest of the universe. (Unless, I mean, that's something that First Order soldiers are conditioned to say) That aside, I like his character arc, with him going from conditioned drone, to scared runaway, to self-sacrificing defender. 

Happily, I've seen sales of Finn's toys pick up since the movie. Perhaps not to the degree of Kylo Ren (evil sells) or Rey (so do ass-kicking ladies packed with BB-8 droids), but he's definitely getting some fans and that's heartening to see. Hopefully Boyega goes on to get great lead roles from here, because I like him quite a bit.