John Boyega & Oscar Isaac Just Gave FinnPoe Shippers Hope For 'Episode 9'

Even in the middle of the battle between light and evil, love always finds a way. On Friday, April 12, at the Episode IX panel at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, stars John Boyega and Oscar Isaac teased the FinnPoe Star Wars ship, giving fans hope that the ship, also known as StormPilot, could become canon in the next movie.

After host Stephen Colbert asked Boyega about the status of the love triangle between Finn, Daisy Ridley's character Rey, and Kelly-Marie Tran's Rose, the actor explained that there was one person that Colbert had forgotten as a possible love interest. "Add Poe there as well," Boyega said, to cheers from the crowd. "It's a love pentagon."

Isaac also weighed in on a potential FinnPoe romance, noting that things were "very complicated" between the pilot and the former Stormtrooper, which peaked the audience's interest. A little later, after Colbert asked if there was anything that Poe takes seriously, Isaac once again brought up his relationship with Finn.

"He takes his love for Finn very seriously," Isaac noted, later adding that after war ends his character will "have to find [some adrenaline] somewhere," before throwing a meaningful look at Boyega. Couple that with the adorable photo of Finn and Poe laughing together that was revealed during the Episode IX panel, and it seems as if FinnPoe might be a reality indeed.

Finn and Poe's relationship was one of the central elements of The Force Awakens, after the former escaped from the First Order with the help of the dashing pilot early on in the film. The pair quickly bonded, with Poe even giving Finn his name — which happens to be a play on his Stormtrooper ID, FN-2187 — and later, his jacket after they reunite at the very end of the film. While director Rian Johnson admitted that a romance between Finn and Poe wouldn't happen in The Last Jedi, the actors themselves have been hinting that they're in favor of StormPilot becoming canon for years.

"I think it’s a very subtle romance that’s happening," Isaac said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show back in 2015 about Poe and Finn's relationship. "You have to just look very closely — you have to watch it a few times to see the little hints but, there was. At least, I was playing romance." In 2018, the actor explained to the Huffington Post that he wanted to keep Poe's sexuality "as fluid as possible," saying, "There are a lot of interesting people in the galaxy, it’d be a shame to cut off 50 percent. I think Poe’s open to any kind of adventure."

In a recent interview with Metro, Isaac also teased that Episode IX would feature plenty of scenes between Finn and Poe, which their comments at the panel seemed to confirm. "I think the one thing I can say [about Star Wars: Episode IX] is that it has been the most fun for me, particularly working with John Boyega because we have just had so much more to do together and we just really connected in a great way," Isaac told the outlet in March.

"It was really a wonderful way to finish it for me because John was the first person I met right when I screen-tested. It was just with me and him. So it just felt like a real full-circle thing," Isaac explained.

Despite the actors' ringing endorsement of the StormPilot ship, it should be noted that there is technically only one canonically queer character in the Star Wars universe, and it's neither Finn nor Poe. According to W, Laura Dern's character, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, reveals in the YA book, Leia: Princess of Alderaan that she is attracted to people besides "humanoid males," though she didn't explicitly state that she was attracted to women. And while Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated in a 2013 interview with USAToday that "there should be many, many more faces of color, many more women, many more gay people," in the Star Wars films, the new trilogy hasn't featured any explicitly queer characters.

Based on the franchise's history, it doesn't seem likely that Finn and Poe's romance will actually hit the silver screen, despite the wishes of fans everywhere and Isaac and Boyega's teases. However, if Star Wars is, indeed, interested in including more LGBTQ+ representation in its films, Episode IX seems like the perfect place to start. After all, they have set up this great "love pentagon," so why not follow through with the FinnPoe romance we've all dreamed of?