Attack The Block 2 will address changing face of London (exclusive)

Watch: John Boyega talks Attack The Block 2

John Boyega says the upcoming sequel to Attack The Block will reflect the gentrification of London.

Released in 2011, Joe Cornish's sci-fi thriller brought killer aliens into the inner city streets of the capital filming across Elephant and Castle, Brixton and Islington, where a gang of youths — led by Boyega's Moses — fought off the invaders.

While plot details are currently under wraps, the sequel is also set in South London, and the Star Wars actor says it will reflect the changes seen in those neighbourhoods.

Read more: Boyega shocked to learn about treatment of veterans

“I was saying to Joe [Cornish] that if we went back now and re-shot the first sequences from the original – that long shot with Sam before she gets robbed – she’d be walking past some five star luxury accommodation now," Boyega tells Yahoo.

“The world has completely changed. It makes it very interesting to go back and re-visit the characters in a new world like that.”

But the prospect of showing off South London (currently enjoying the limelight in romcom Rye Lane) is what really excites him. “We should be proud that we’re going to show inner city London to the rest of the world! For once!”

His new movie Breaking, however, sees Boyega in more serious mode. Based on true events from 2017, he plays former Marine, Brian Brown-Easley, who took the law into his own hands when the Department of Veterans Affairs mislaid his disability payment – $892 dollars, the difference between survival and destitution.

Read more: Boyega was 'exhausted' and 'paranoid' after Star Wars fame

Weight loss and close-cropped hair make him almost unrecognisable in a role that involved working closely with the Brown-Easley family to make sure he “treated Brian’s story with integrity”.

The winner of BAFTA’s Rising Star Award in 2016 and best known as Finn in the Star Wars saga, he was most recently seen alongside Viola Davis in The Woman King and will be back on screens again this summer with Kiefer Sutherland and Jamie Foxx in Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone.

Breaking was directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and also stars The Wire’s Michael K Williams (in what was to be his last role), Nicole Beharie, Jeffrey Donovan, Selenis Leyva and Olivia Washington. The film won the Best Ensemble Cast award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it received its world premiere.

Breaking is available on Digital Download on 27 March, 2023.