And the thing is historically, he's not the first one to point this out. Carl Sagan back in 1978 on the Johnny Carson tonight show criticized the first film for being too white with its human cast, despite it being set in a galaxy with all manner of sentient alien life also walking around.
You'd think "rebel Stormtrooper" would be impossible to screw up but the movies got weirdly focused on trying to find him a love interest that wouldn't make guys on YouTube have a conniption, which was impossible
To this day I remain baffled by how weak a soup waa made from such amazing raw ingredients in that trilogy. So many individual good ideas & great things that just didn't cohere. (The third movie I give a semi pass because they clearly had to rewrite around a Leia-shaped hole in the middle of it).
It's true, and extends to women, too. The Sequel Trilogy may be the weakest of the Star Wars films, but the fact remains that the only criticisms chuds have with it boils down to them reacting to women and POC leads like Lovecraftian monsters.
Seems true. They were going to kill Oscar Isaac in the first one, and I can't help but think they kept him in the series because they were nervous with Boyega as the main male lead.
No lie detected. Us Star Wars fans need to be better, the man was a godsend and we failed to stand up for him as a community.
Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, John Boyega, Loan Tran. Who the hell would want to be in Star Wars when ‘fans’ want to burn it down while the real fans twiddle our thumbs.
I was surprised Boyega decided to talk about this now, but it actually isn't just an out-of-the-blue comment. It's from this recent documentary (which looks pretty interesting): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAyTlC9rHCE
Two off-topic comments. One, boy has Apple TV stolen HBO's lunch. Two, a couple of those people listed are not at the level of fame required for that documentary!
All "fandoms" are toxic. They develop (and encourage) bizarre parasocial relationships with the creators, characters, and franchise itself. It creates a very insular in-group that punishes those who don't toe the party line in terms interpreting scenes/themes a certain way.
I'm always suspicious of groups based on consumption. I'm contrast, people who like paintings, for example, don't declare themselves part of a fandom, and criticism and disagreement over pieces is encouraged and to be expected.
This is a problem with art (and being an artist) becoming increasingly difficult to do without being profitable. Gone are the days of finding a patron to subsidize a worthwhile artist, including the inactive periods of renewal and inspiration.
That's always been a problem of artists. Always. Even when the masters had benefactors they had to paint what they wanted. The problem with "fandom" is that purchases must be made to engage with the material. Movie tickets, streaming services, videogames, music, conventions, toys, etc
If you appreciate art, you can go to a museum and see if for a nominal fee. You can view it on the internet. You can buy prints of it without the mark-up of branded merchandise.
It's only one example, but there's a qualitative difference with fandom. There's a price for entry.
Star Wars was more because of his acting ability. He was an excellent character with his relationship with Rey seemingly natural and without prejudice. Unlike this universe with its segregation and racism.
Wtf? Star Wars is a kaleidoscope! Fuzzy, green, blue, white, black, it’s the whole box of crayons. That’s the beauty of Star Wars. Sad that is lost on you.
Huh? In the OT one of the most important characters in the story was black, the prequels most iconic Jedi is a black man and if the sequels existed (which I don't recognize) it has many characters of colour. POC representation in the SW universe has only increased since it's inception
Dude, what the fuck, are you actually with a straight face saying Star Wars isn't predomently white because there are white people with colored make-up on it?
“You can always tell [black people being in Star Wars is] something when some ‘Star Wars’ fans try to say, ‘Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!’ It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It’s like, they just scattered that in there, bro!” - John Boyega
Is there anybody who wants to contradict the statement that Star Wars is “so white”? There were more green characters than black ones in the first three…
That and Kennedy views Solo as an abject failure when in reality it was a victim of The Last Jedi backlash. Glover/that whole cast was so much fun. 😞😭🤦♂️
Solo was so incredibly bad despite the cast being mostly good (especially Glover who was amazing as Lando). Sometimes bad material just can't be salvaged by good actors.
Racism aside (which is impossible to do) it’s also truly amazing how un-fun they can make any Star Wars related stuff? This awful behavior isn’t particularly unique to the Star Wars fandom but hell if they don’t excel at making me run away. Oh shit, then they are racist in addition?!?! 😬😭😞
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Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, John Boyega, Loan Tran. Who the hell would want to be in Star Wars when ‘fans’ want to burn it down while the real fans twiddle our thumbs.
I just watched “Unstoppable” and you couldn’t convince me that Denzel hadn’t been working with trains for 30 years.
It's only one example, but there's a qualitative difference with fandom. There's a price for entry.