Boyega portrayed Leroy Logan in Red, White and Blue, as part of Steve McQueen's anthology series Small Axe (2020), for which he won a Golden Globe Award.

There was a rumour that his father wanted Boyega to become a minister, but John denied this in an interview with Sam Sanders on Fresh Air.

[17][18] In September 2011, HBO announced that Boyega had been cast in the boxing drama pilot Da Brick, loosely based on Mike Tyson's life.

Boyega was expected to play Donnie, who is released from a juvenile detention centre on his 18th birthday and begins to examine what it means to be a man.

Boyega was chosen by Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International as one of the "UK Stars of Tomorrow 2011" and appeared with two other actors on the cover of the magazine's July 2011 edition.

[21] In March 2012, he was cast in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book Half of a Yellow Sun.

[23] It was later revealed that he would play Finn, a stormtrooper for the First Order, who, after witnessing their cruelty, leaves the military power and joins the fight against them.

[29] In 2019 he teased his new collaboration with Writer/Director Sebastian Thiel,[30] with whom he is developing a series based on their childhood experiences, with Boyega producing.

In an interview on Good Morning America, he revealed that he had inadvertently left his script in a hotel room during filming.

[40] In 2022, Boyega was the lead in Abi Damaris Corbin's second feature film, Breaking, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival under its original title, 892,[41] as well as Gina Prince-Bythewood's historical epic The Woman King alongside Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, and Lashana Lynch.

[45] Boyega showed solidarity[clarification needed] with George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Stephen Lawrence during a speech at a Black Lives Matter rally in Hyde Park, London.