This is pretty shocking news. John Boyega had been in Louisiana since May filming the upcoming Netflix movie, Rebel Ridge.
But just this past week, he left production and cited “family reasons” as the cause.
The production is currently paused but we understand Netflix is working hard to find a replacement for the Star Wars actor and someone is likely to be drafted in in the next few days. Filming began on May 3rd in Louisiana.
According to the report, Boyega was one of the main stars in this movie, which makes it even more bizarre. You don’t see something like this happen all the time, where a lead actor just leaves in the middle of filming.
A Netflix spokesperson had this to say:
Rebel Ridge is pausing temporarily as we look to re-cast John Boyega who needed to leave the project for family reasons. We remain committed to Jeremy Saulnier’s extraordinary film and look forward to resuming production. We look forward to continuing our partnership with John Boyega’s UpperRoom Productions, in addition to our upcoming film They Cloned Tyrone in which he also stars.
The movie also stars AnnaSophia Robb, James Cromwell, Emory Cohen and Don Johnson.
Plot details are hard to come by, but the project is believed to explore systemic American injustice in the context of action, black humor, and suspense.
Hopefully Boyega’s family situation will have a happy ending.
