John Boyega's agent denies the actor left 'Rebel Ridge' production without telling anyone

Deadline exclusively reported June 3 that John Boyega abruptly left Netflix's Rebel Ridge "mid-shoot" for "family reasons," and while production was subsequently paused, "Netflix is working hard to find a replacement."

Then came an exclusive report from Kim Masters and Borys Kit for The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday (June 23) that took it one step further:

"Other sources say that in fact, Boyega simply walked away from the production with filming underway—which, according to one person with knowledge of the situation, the filmmakers only discovered when they looked for him at his hotel and found that he had checked out. According to sources, there seemed to be no one incident that prompted Boyega to leave in the midst of shooting. Several insiders, however, say the star had myriad issues ranging from the script to his accommodations.

And it was the latter that prompted Boyega's agent, Femi Oguns, to speak out on behalf of the 29-year-old Star Wars actor (h/t NME): 

"I can categorically say that these rumours are completely untrue. People will form their opinions often rooted from boredom. As stated John unfortunately left due to family reasons which in truth is none of anyone’s business except his own. John and Netflix have a wonderful relationship which will continue to grow for years to come whether that be through his acting or through [Boyega’s production company] UpperRoom."

Netflix's attempts to find a quick replacement for Boyega were unsuccessful, per THR, and the new plan is for Rebel Ridge's production "to resume with a new lead early next year."

Rebel Ridge will be directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who also wrote the film and declined to provide a comment to THR.

Boyega burst onto the international scene through his role as Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy beginning with The Force Awakens (2015) and concluding with The Rise of Skywalker (2019). You can read more about his perspective on that experience in this British GQ interview.

Boyega promptly shut down hope that he will appear in any future Star Wars television series. "You ain't going to Disney Plus me!" he told Variety in December 2019, as he explained he'd rather "stay in the feature films." He left the door open to make another movie in the franchise, though, "as long as Daisy [Ridley] and Oscar [Isaac] are down for it."