Source: Walt Disney Studios / Disney
A few months ago John Boyega turned a lot of heads when he called out the Star Wars franchise for their history of marginalizing characters of color in an interview for GQ.
Well, it seems like his words reached ears at the top of the Disney echelon as Boyega recently revealed that he had a heart-to-heart with Lucasfilm President, Kathleen Kennedy. According to Deadline, Boyega actually addressed the issue with a receptive Kennedy and came away feeling like it was a productive talk.
Boyega explained: “So I got on a phone call with Kathleen Kennedy [Lucasfilm President] and she verbally showed support and we got to have a really nice, transparent, honest conversation that is beneficial to both of us.”
He continued: “I think these kinds of conversations, you can go into the realm of sounding like you’re just trying to save your own career, but what is great now is that it is a conversation that anyone has access to. Now people can express themselves about this knowing that any character we love, especially in these big franchises like the Marvels and Star Wars, we love them because of the moments that they are given, we love them because of those moments, and they’re heroic moments that these producers all decide for these characters so we need to see that in our characters that are maybe black and from other cultures.”
Well, that’s good to know.
While we hope future Star Wars films emphasize diversity and give non-white characters their time to shine, we’re really crossing our fingers that said characters in a galaxy far, far away are a part of a better written story. Those last two trilogies were all kinds of struggle aside from a film or two with the more recent ones basically a rehashed version of the original 70’s classics. Just sayin.’
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