What John Boyega Could Look Like As The Red Hood
John Boyega exploded onto the science fiction scene in 2011's Attack the Block and he's been dominating aliens and audiences ever since. He's been in speculative future fiction like The Circle, mech adventures like Pacific Rim: Uprising ... and, of course, he played Finn in the latest Star Wars trilogy. And while Boyega branches into all other genres, too, it's clear that his future — which includes They Cloned Tyrone with Jamie Foxx and Gavin Hood's The Test — will always be a little bit sci-fi.
The big thing that's missing is, obviously, superheroes. Despite all his force-sensitive time in a galaxy far, far away, we've not yet seen John Boyega in the full-blown, proverbial cape and tights. That feels like a wild oversight.
Boyega seemed to agree, over the summer in 2020. During the DC FanDome event, it was announced that there would be a forthcoming Static Shock movie. People immediately took to Twitter saying Boyega should take up the role. Boyega tweeted that he was too old for it. Fans also thought Boyega might be the right actor for beloved Green Lantern John Stewart. Boyega, however, tweeted that he had a different character in mind: the Red Hood.
Maybe John Boyega is tired of playing the lovable good guy, or maybe he's a massive Batman fanboy, but it's surprising to see his choice of "hero" from the Gotham City rogue's gallery. Red Hood, for those who don't know, is former Robin Jason Todd. And Boyega would, actually, be a great choice for the part.
Why John Boyega is surprisingly perfect for Red Hood
There have been a lot of Robins over the years, but Jason Todd was something different — in that, during his Robin tenure, he drew a lot of controversy. Originally portrayed as identical to the original Robin (and future Nightwing), Dick Grayson, Todd was later rewritten into an angsty bad boy who literally stole the rims off the Batmobile. Fans weren't thrilled. Jason Todd was so hated, in fact, that when DC Comics held a public poll to decide whether Todd would die in the 1988 story "A Death in the Family," the fans voted for his demise (though there is speculation that secret cheating was involved, but that's a whole other story).
In any case, Jason Todd stayed dead for nearly two decades. In 2005, however, he returned to life — as you may have guessed — as the antihero Red Hood. Over the years, people have softened their opinions on Jason Todd, and the Red Hood is now a fan-favorite DC character, but to some fans, Todd will always be that angsty, divisive bad boy. Which makes Boyega's desire to play him all the more interesting. It makes sense, though. Boyega has grown tired of his role from Star Wars and he's certainly not held back with his frustrations about how Finn's story ended.
Jason Todd's story, then, almost feels like too perfect a fit. So perfect, in fact, that Instagram user spdrmnkyxxiii mocked up a great design for what Boyega could look like if he were Jason Todd, pictured here:
Frankly, the idea of Boyega playing the Red Hood works really well, and now we can't stop thinking about it. There's a new Batman movie with Robert Pattinson on the way, and the setting is a bit early for Todd to come into the picture, but there's always room for more Batman stories — and having Boyega star in a Batman movie, in any capacity, would absolutely rule.