John Boyega under fire for crude Star Wars joke

Warning: this post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars fans have criticised actor Johan Boyega after he made a crude joke about his character hooking up with Jedi hero Rey in the new film The Rise of Skywalker.

The 27-year-old British actor earned the wrath of his social media followers after he replied to a fan who joked that the death of one of his character's love-rivals had cleared the path for Boyega's character Finn.

"It's not about who she kisses but who eventually lays the pipe. You are a genius," Boyega responded on Twitter."

The comment saw a wave of criticism directed at Boyega, with fans accusing him of misogyny and bad taste, reported the New York Post.

"Bro you re extremly [sic] disgusting and gross also f***ing disrespectful … you cannot be this jealous of adam driver [sic] dude," replied Hannha Crogmen with a screen shot of Boyega's comment.

Actors John Boyega and Daisy Ridley at the London premiere for The Rise of Skywalker. Photo / AP.

Boyega stood his ground and defended his tweet, pointing out he was joking about fictional characters and not his co-star Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey.

"You obviously don't know the diffrence [sic] between a fictional world and reality," Boyega tweeted in reply to Crogmen.

"I was talking about Rey from Star Wars. When did I speak about women in general?" he replied to another critic on Instagram.