George Lucas doesn’t think “Star Wars” is colorblind. In fact, the writer/director wants to remind audiences that the space-set film franchise is dealing with robots and aliens, not race.
While receiving the honorary Palme d’Or in the closing night ceremony at Cannes 2024, Lucas called out critics who complained about the predominantly white casting of the franchise.
“They would say, ‘It’s all white men,’” Lucas said. “Most of the people are aliens! The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever. The idea is all people are equal.”
In fact, Lucas pointed to how the only species discrimination is between humans, aliens, and robots.
“That was a way of saying, you know, people are always discriminating against something and sooner or later, that’s what’s going to happen,” Lucas said of how the robots are treated in the cinematic universe. “I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.’”
Of course, the “Star Wars” fandom has skewed racist in recent years, specifically with the backlash towards John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, who both faced racist fan harassment for their respective film roles. As for the TV side of things, Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” led to breakout star Moses Ingram receiving hateful social media messages alleging that she was a “diversity hire.”
According to Ingram, Lucasfilm and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” director Deborah Chow anticipated fan hate toward her Black female character and even had a meeting prior to the series’ premiere to preemptively discuss how to handle the backlash.
Boyega said in 2020 that he had to “maneuver” discussions about diverse casting at Disney, and encouraged the studio to provide additional support for actors of color joining the “Star Wars” franchise.
“You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything,” Boyega said. “[But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”
