In context: Companies deal with leaks frequently. Most of the time, even if something gets out that is valid, a firm can deny it or not comment on it and let people speculate. But what if the leak was massive and undeniable? Disney just barely averted such a catastrophe with its latest Star Wars film.
Somehow a full and authentic script for The Rise of Skywalker ended up for sale on eBay recently. The folks at Lucasfilm were shocked, but fortunately, a Disney staffer came to the rescue and bought the script before it could get into anyone else’s hands.
Entertainment Weekly reported that Director J.J. Abrams said that an actor had left the script under his bed, and a housekeeper found it and gave it away. That third-party presumably put it up on eBay to make a quick buck. Abrams made a point of not mentioning which actor made the flub, but it turns out it was John Boyega.
Boyega, who plays Finn in the final (or not so final) three episodes, admitted to Good Morning America that he was the one to blame. The actor said that he forgot that he had left his script under the bed because he was “partying.”
“I was moving apartments, and I left the script under my bed. I was like, ‘I will leave it under my bed and when I wake up the next morning, I will take it and then move.’ But then my boys came over, and we started partying a little bit. The script, it just stayed there. And a few weeks after, this cleaner comes in, finds this script, and puts it on eBay for like 65 pounds [about $85].”
Disney and Lucasfilm take the secrecy of the films seriously. Mark Hamill told Polygon in 2016 that for The Last Jedi, he would get his script in the morning then, after shooting for the day, staffers took the pages away and shredded them.
“You have security lines you have to walk through, both to and from set,” said the man that everybody knows as Luke Skywalker. “And, not to mention, you have to wear these big monk hoods to protect your costume from drones.”
So Boyega was justifiably scared when he discovered that he lost the full script, but it remains unclear if he faced any punishment other than a sharp reprimand from Mickey Mouse.
“It was scary, I got calls from every official,” Boyega said. “Even Mickey Mouse called me, ‘What did you do?’”
It is also puzzling why Boyega was allowed to not only have a full script but also was permitted to take it off-set. We may never know, as I'm sure Disney just wants to put a lid on the whole thing and get on with the release coming December 20.
