'Star Wars' Easter egg: How Finn's name connects George Lucas, 'A New Hope' and a historic short film
Disney and its associated brands went on a bit of an Easter egg reveal spree this Easter weekend. One of the secrets that have been revealed is about John Boyega's former stormtrooper character Finn/FN-2187 from the 'Star Wars' sequel trilogy and it goes all the way back to the very beginning of the franchise.
Like most of the sequel trilogy characters, Finn was introduced in 2015's 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' and he's had a bit of a mixed reaction from the fanbase. However, he is still one of the most popular characters from the latest three movies, relatively speaking, and this reveal has excited a number of fans.
The official 'Star Wars' Twitter page revealed, "Finn’s stormtrooper number was FN-2187. The # is a homage to cell 2187 located in detention block AA-23 on the Death Star, the cell of Princess Leia in A New Hope. Cell 2187 from ANH is a ref. to '21-87' a National Film Board of Canada short that inspired a young George Lucas."
In case you're wondering, '21-87' was a 9 minutes and 33 seconds long short film directed by the Canadian avant-garde director Arthur Lipsett in 1963. It was distributed by the National Film Board of Canada and while it's not a space-opera like 'Star Wars', it did heavily impact George Lucas's approach to filmmaking.
Fans have been discussing and reacting to the reveal online and the responses so far are a bit all over the place. Some fans were overjoyed to get some trivia on Finn and happy to see the character get a little attention, with one fan tweeting, "can we PLEASE get more Finn content."
On the other side of the spectrum, there were the fans who aren't too big on the character. One such fan wrote that the Easter egg was "the only good thing of the character."
Other reactions range from a fan who declared the reveal was "Deep! Love this!" to another fan who commented, "I might need to look it up."
Meanwhile, one fan asked, "I always wondered what 'FN' stands for. Like the Clone Troopers designation was "CT" for Clone Trooper but what does FN stand for?"
Another fan responded to the question suggesting it might have been an acronym for "Foot-soldier Number" but then another fan pointed out that Jannah (Naomi Ackie) had the letters "TZ" in her designation (TZ-1719, in case you're wondering), so maybe the letters were just thrown in at random. Perhaps we'll get a proper explanation in the future.
What do you think of Finn's connection to the past of 'Star Wars'? Do you think the sequels were worthy additions to the franchise? Let us know in the comments.