Star Wars canon has made a substantial change to the origin of Finn, the character played by John Boyega in the sequels.
Finn is one of the most famous stormtroopers who have deserted from their ranks in the saga of starwars. However, he was not the first. The galactic saga has made a substantial change in that sense and the way in which the Princess Leia has shot dead a predecessor of the hero of John Boyega. And what they have narrated in the comics could have shed a little more light on their origin. This has been collected on the website of ScreenRant with a very interesting report.
During Imperial times, the lives of stormtroopers meant nothing. The soldiers participated in countless missions that ended the lives of friends and allies. The same thing happened with the first order, where we find Finn and other stormtroopers. They were expendable beings. It didn’t matter their ability or their prowess as soldiers. They were numbers. The value of life is what pushed these two characters to want something better. But ironically, it is the death of the unknown stormtrooper that redefines and reframes the character’s origin from the Star Wars sequels.
There were many others before him… but they all ended up dead
The role Leia has played in the death of a potential previous Finn places an immense weight on that soldier who actually managed to escape and become someone else in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This unknown soldier was featured in issue ten of Star Wars Talescomic of Garth Ennis Y John McCrea which was published in 2001. Finn and this soldier are incredibly similar. They have a lot of empathy and connect with their peers in a way that contrasts with the ruthless ideology that is imposed on them.
The soldier recalls that a former TIE pilot betrayed the galactic empire and joined the rebel alliance. A situation eerily similar to that of Finn and the First Order in the Episode VII of Star Wars. This means that John Boyega’s hero is not the only one who wanted to leave, as we discover in The Rise of Skywalker. Perhaps he was chosen by the Force, so to speak. But, undoubtedly, there were more before him who were probably killed by the Endurance or the Rebel Alliance before they could escape Imperial pursuits.