What was Finn going to tell Rey in The Rise of Skywalker?

Contains spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker gave fans plenty of answers to long-burning questions, but it didn’t end without leaving a few mysteries unsolved one of which involved two of the sequel trilogy’s most important characters.

In the last journey through the galaxy far, far away within the Skywalker saga, Rey (Daisy Ridley) heads out with Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and BB-8 in search of a Sith wayfinder, which will guide them to the desert planet Exegol within the Unknown Regions. They encounter danger on the way as Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) continues to Force-sense — and effectively stalk — Rey. Following a lead on the planet of Pasaana, the Resistance fighters race away in the general direction of the long-forgotten ship of Sith loyalist Ochi of Bestoon. Having barely managed to shake off the chasing stormtroopers as they head out into the desert, the group’s speeders are ultimately hit and blasted to pieces. They fall to the ground just short of Ochi’s ship — left up on a rocky outcrop, relatively unharmed. That is, until they start to sink into a quicksand-like substance they haven’t realized they’ve landed on.

In a desperate moment and believing this may be his last moment before death, Finn calls out to Rey, wanting to tell her something important. But just before he can share his big secret, Finn gets a mouthful of sand as the group sinks completely out of sight and lands in an underground maze of tunnels. While Rey later asks Finn what he wanted to say — and Poe tries throughout the rest of the film to press the issue and uncover Finn’s secret — the former Stormtrooper brushes them off, leaving the audience without an answer even after The Rise of Skywalker ends.

With fan theory running rife, The Rise of Skywalker co-writer and director J.J. Abrams decided to clear the air surrounding Finn’s big reveal that never actually came to fruition in the film. According to Twitter user Kaila Ren, when asked the question by a fan at the Academy screening of The Rise of Skywalker, Abrams revealed that Finn’s secret is something astute fans may already have guessed: Finn is Force-sensitive, just like Rey.

“JJ said it meant to him that he wanted to tell Rey he was force sensitive, but purposely left it open ended,” Ren posted in a second tweet. Games Radar also reported that Abrams added the open-ended nature of Finn’s secret so it “could mean different things to different people.”

We’re not entirely sure why this was a secret that Poe wasn’t allowed to know, but Finn certainly wasn’t going to share the info with his Resistance co-General even with all his ribbing.

As we mentioned, Finn’s Force-sensitivity is something that’s hinted at throughout the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy — but most prominently throughout The Rise of Skywalker. In the film, he was be able to sense when Rey was in danger, could feel that Jannah (Naomi Ackie) was also a deserter when he met her, was somehow able to pick out exactly which of the Star Destroyers of the massive Final Order fleet was the command ship, and felt Rey (briefly) die after she defeated Emperor Palpatine. Even before all that, Finn was able to break free from the extensive brainwashing stormtroopers are subjective to in the First Order, which is something CinemaBlend points out as further evidence of Finn’s Force-sensitive nature.

Overall, this is a much better explanation than the fan-favorite one of Finn wanting to confess his love for Rey, as it ties into everything we know (and love) about Finn.