An Hour With John Boyega & Billie Lourd At Spring Edition Of Motor City Comic Con 2026
Background pictures of John Boyega and a black & white picture of Billie Lourd over foreground pictures of the actors in character as Finn and Lt. Connix.
Image Source: Motor City Comic Con Instagram
The 2026 Spring Edition of the Motor City Comic Con took place on May 17, a beautiful sunny day. It was especially promising as one of the most anticipated panels was a reunion of John Boyega and Billie Lourd. The conference room was packed almost to capacity with eager audience members.
The panel was also made special for metro-Detroiters as it was moderated by Brad Galli, the long-time Sports Anchor and Director at Channel 7 WXYZ. Galli just left his 15-year post as the head Sports Anchor in May to focus more on his own independent journalism and started his own Youtube channel, The Brad Galli Show. The audience was happy to see a familiar face helm the panel.
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Before John and Billie came out, Galli gave an introduction. He mentioned that Billie did not want questions about her mother; instead, she wanted to focus on her projects. With that, John Boyega and Billie Lourde came out to thunderous applause!
Brad Galli sitting at the panel table with John Boyega and Billie Lourd in front of audience members
Image Source: Cultureslate
This Comic-Con was the first time that John and Billie had seen each other since filming wrapped on the Star Wars sequel trilogy. In fact, this was the first Comic-Con that Billie at which she was an official guest, aside from Star Wars Celebration, and her first time in Detroit! John had been to Detroit before, and he said he was happy to be back! When asked what they liked about Detroit, Billie immediately exclaimed that she liked Detroit-style pizza! John was impressed with people’s honesty. He shared that when he was sitting at his table for meet-and-greets, the people coming up to him were telling him that Finn’s character should be more developed and an older lady leaned over and said “don’t waste time being here!” Everyone in the audience cheered this sentiment!
Although Brad Galli had warned the attendees that Billie did not want audience questions about her mother, Billie was very open talking about the late Carrie Fisher. Billie explained how she originally auditioned for the role of Rey. Not getting that, she got the part of Lt. Connix. Of course, she was on set with her mom who was playing General Leia Organa. Billie warned her mother to not treat her any differently than anyone else on the set, and Billie herself called her own mother “Carrie”. They actually got into a fight about this in the car on the way home as to how to continue like that! But it didn’t really matter because everyone in the production all knew that Billie was Carrie’s daughter.
Image Source: Cultureslate
Brad Galli talking with John Boyega and Billie Lourd at the panelist table with the sign language interpreter in front of audience members.
With that bit of awkwardness out of the way, Billie embraced the situation and proclaimed, “I’m a proud nepo baby!” She marveled at the size of the movie sets, explaining how much bigger they were compared to the conference room we were sitting in. She really enjoyed playing the part of Lt. Connix and said that she would be open to a Lt. Connix backstory movie. Especially since there is no PEZ dispenser of her yet, and, according to Billie, her mom said “you haven’t made it until you’re a PEZ dispenser!”
Billie and John pointed out that not only was this their first time reuniting since production wrapped on the sequel trilogy, but when they first met each other, they were pretty much kids themselves. Now, they are adults with their own kids! When asked about watching the Star Wars movies with her own kids, Billie giggled and said that she still keeps in touch with Mark Hamill and grew up with Anthony Daniels. When her kids asked her if they could meet Han Solo (!), she assured them that “she might know someone who could get them to Han Solo”.
Unlike Billie, whose most well-known project aside from Star Wars is American Horror Story, John Boyega has done more kid-friendly roles, namely, being a voice actor for Netflix’s Watership Down. He claimed that he had almost forgotten that he had done that role until a fan reminded him! They both agreed that since they had young kids, more kid-friendly roles would be a good idea, as their roles might be too “dark” for their children now!
Speaking of kids, John did not have the “nepo baby” upbringing of Billie Lourd’s. His audition took about nine months! John’s audition, callbacks, and even training videos took place at Pinewood Studios in the UK. As his audition was lengthy, John got a lot of experience, and it got to the point where JJ Abrams asked John what he thought of the other “Poes” he was auditioning opposite! Of course, the part of Poe Dameron went to Oscar Isaac, with whom John still keeps in touch.
John Boyega laughing with a fan at his meet & greet table
Image Source: The Detroit News
John also had a good relationship with Carrie Fisher. As Finn, John had to keep to a diet because of how physically demanding the role was. Carrie smuggled John juice and candy so he could have a snack! He went on to describe the “nice smuggling operation” that they had going on - Carrie also had stuff for them to sign, and he also took souvenirs from the different sets - John has stones from the planet Crait, Oscar’s scarf from Rise of Skywalker, his rifle, costume from all three movies, and one of Harrison Ford’s pins. When John asked Harrison if he could have the pin, Harrison’s response was “I don’t care kid.” And John’s wife was in the audience to confirm this!
Like Billie, John would be happy if in future installments of Star Wars if Finn’s character would be expanded. But, he hasn’t talked to Dave Filoni yet about any upcoming projects. John did say that no matter what, he would continue to watch the Star Wars franchise.
As far as upcoming projects for Billie, she did say that she is working on Season 13 of American Horror Story with Jessica Lange! Both ended the panel with no audience questions, but saying that they were very happy to be in Detroit for Comic-Con and they would love to come back again - Billie to carry on her family tradition, as she went to many comic-cons with her mother, and John does enjoy the Detroit area. Billie took a selfie with the entire audience in the background, and everyone happily went on their merry ways.
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