--- title: Star Wars: John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Fan description: The 'Star Wars' super fan had terminal cancer and his dying wish was to see 'The Force Awakens'. canonical: https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-10T17:39:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:29:08.657Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'The Force Awakens' Star John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Star Wars Fan Who Screened Film og:description: Super fan had terminal cancer and his dying wish was to see 'The Force Awakens' og:url: https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76f1c08be1e7386a/69886fa8ab6d7751966a6ff2/starwars55352e4edd978.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: starwars55352e4edd978 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Force Awakens' Star John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Star Wars Fan Who Screened Film twitter:description: Super fan had terminal cancer and his dying wish was to see 'The Force Awakens' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76f1c08be1e7386a/69886fa8ab6d7751966a6ff2/starwars55352e4edd978.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Force Awakens_ Star John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Star Wars Fan Who Screened Film by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Nov 10, 2015 5:39 PM UTC  by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Nov 10, 2015 5:39 PM UTC Daniel Fleetwood, the terminally ill man whose final wish was to see _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_, [has died days after seeing the movie](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/10/daniel-fleetwood-dead-star-wars-fan-die), and John Boyega paid tribute to Fleetwood on Twitter. “Glad you got to see the movie \[and\] more importantly that you slept in peace,” the _Force Awakens_ star [wrote](https://twitter.com/JohnBoyega/status/664084083505545216). “God bless you man. You inspire me.” > [](https://twitter.com/JohnBoyega/status/664084083505545216) The lifelong _Star Wars_ fan had been diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a connective tissue cancer, and did not know if he would live to see _The Force Awakens_ in theaters in December. His story went viral when a campaign with the hashtag #ForceForDaniel was launched to allow the 32-year-old to see the movie early, and _Star Wars_ cast members like Boyega, Peter Mayhew, and Mark Hamill all retweeted posts spreading the word about Fleetwood and his wish. Last week, Disney screened an unedited version of _The Force Awakens_ for Fleetwood, after director J.J. Abrams called him to tell him his wish had been granted. His wife, Ashley, [announced](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/10/daniel-fleetwood-dead-star-wars-fan-die) on Facebook early Tuesday morning that her husband had died. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/10/john-boyega-tribute-daniel-fleetwood-star-wars-force-awakens) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://ew.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/"},"headline":"The Force Awakens Star John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Star Wars Fan Who Screened Film","datePublished":"2015-11-10T17:39:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:29:08.657Z","description":"The 'Star Wars' super fan had terminal cancer and his dying wish was to see 'The Force Awakens'","url":"https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/","keywords":["movies","star wars: the force awakens"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76f1c08be1e7386a/69886fa8ab6d7751966a6ff2/starwars55352e4edd978.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76f1c08be1e7386a/69886fa8ab6d7751966a6ff2/starwars55352e4edd978.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"starwars55352e4edd978","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4106499/star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyega-daniel-fleetwood/","name":"The Force Awakens Star John Boyega Pays Tribute to Passing of Star Wars Fan Who Screened Film"}}]}] ```