I think it's only fair that I withhold my judgement of the porgs—the polarising space penguins that will appear in Star Wars: The Last Jedi—for when the movie is released. At this point I've come to terms with Disney's obsessive commodification of the Star Wars universe, and applaud their ability to create money out of thin air by adding a new cute action figure to each movie just before Christmas. The porgs are the hot new thing every child in the world will be begging their parents for long before and after The Last Jedi is released on December 15.
Now, the Internet has had a few words about the porgs both good and bad, and I don't even want to get into it. But, in a post-Jar Jar Binks world, the majority of the reactions to the porgs were negative, in fear of another shitty character for kids in the Star Wars universe. It turns out John Boyega was also deeply concerned when he first saw the new little aliens.
As Boyega said in an interview with Screen Crush:
My first reaction was horror... I saw the porgs in the hole in the Millennium Falcon, with tiny smaller ones all bunched together. From then, we always got off on a bad foot.To be honest, I haven't seen the movie yet so I don't know how they play in the film. But I thought there was like a porg infestation on the Falcon! Because they were everywhere! And Chewie—if you've seen the trailer—he slaps one off the deck of the ship. So, yeah, it was always itchy times if I saw some porgs. If I saw one porg by itself, in a big size, it's much better. But if I see a bunch of little critters all together, looking like bugs, it makes me itchy.
Obviously, Boyega didn't like—and might be slightly allergic to—the porgs. But, again, we won't know exactly how bad (or good!) the porgs are until the movie is out. Until then, I personally feel nothing about the porgs.
