Finn and Poe Dameron: The Wasted Potential of a Star Wars Love Story

I don't know why Disney is so afraid to show a romantic relationship between Star Wars characters Finn and Poe Dameron and as Oscar Isaac (who plays Poe) said it seems like a "natural progression" between these two characters. Director J.J. Abrams recently stated that there is no romance between Finn and Poe but I have to ask, why not? Especially since the characters have great chemistry and the actors John Boyega and Oscar Isaac both support the idea of their characters being in a relationship.

It's disappointing that no further romantic progress was made for Finn and Poe, it definitely would have been interesting seeing these guys go from friends to a romantic relationship. To me Finn and Poe had an energy that felt similar to Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa from the original Star Wars movies. And it feels like a missed opportunity to not have pursued a romance between them. The first two movies have already showed the signs of a potential romance between them from flirtatious longing looks to showing deep concern for each other. I do wonder if either Poe or Finn had been a woman, would a romance have happened between them?

I've seen where some fans have said that a relationship between Poe and Finn would have been forced. I don't understand how Finn and Poe's chemistry is overlooked but if you want to talk about something being forced then it was the kiss between Rose Tico and Finn in The Last Jedi. Finn and Rose have absolutely no romantic chemistry and it felt like they were put together in order to give Finn a love interest that wasn't Poe. There was no build up for that kiss between Rose and Finn, it was just something that felt misplaced given the lack of romantic chemistry. There is a good friendship developing between Rose and Finn but there's something deeper between Finn and Poe. It's a tension that's been there from the very beginning, a spark of something more that fans have picked up on in The Force Awakens but unfortunately was never further invested in.

As a Star Wars fan, I'm still going to see the upcoming final movie The Rise of Skywalker but I can't help feeling a little disappointed that a potential romance between Finn and Poe Dameron will not happen. Every Star Wars trilogy should include a good romance, the original trilogy gave us the iconic love between Leia and Han, the prequels gave us the bittersweet romance between Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker and this one should have given us the friends to lovers romance between Poe and Finn. I like to think that perhaps at some point, their relationship will be made canon in a future Star Wars novel. However, I'm not going to pin any hope on that happening anytime soon or ever for that matter.