Over the years, it’s become increasingly clear that not even the folks within Lucasfilm actually have a proper vision of what Star Wars should be. Of course, the fact that Disney didn’t have any concrete plans for their Sequel Trilogy and just made the story up as they went along doesn’t help matters, either.
This has actually been an important critique of the last two movies in the Skywalker Saga. And amid all this continuous backlash, one name keeps popping up again and again. I mean, it’s not news that a lot of Star Wars lovers think Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is at fault for involving alleged SJW propaganda in the Sequel Trilogy. There were even reports that George Lucas blames her for the division among the fans.
Still, the producer has done a lot to push for more diversity in that galaxy far, far away. But John Boyega isn’t quite convinced, as he recently flamed quite a scandal after his candid interview with GQ, in which he criticized the House of Mouse for sidelining his character and “giving all the nuance” to Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren.
It seems that the actor held a fruitful conversation with Kennedy after the fact, however, revealing the following in a recent interview with the BBC:
“So I got on a phone call with Kathleen Kennedy and she verbally showed support and we got to have a really nice, transparent, honest conversation that is beneficial to both of us.”
Boyega further reaffirmed that this was not one of those calls to “save your own career,” noting:
“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.”
Of course, while the Pacific Rim: Uprising actor’s grievances are legitimate, the last Star Wars movie was fast paced regardless of the characters and their involvement. Granted, the likes of Finn and Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose didn’t get nearly as much screen time as they did in the preceding installment, but we didn’t receive any compelling resolutions for Rey or Ben Solo either, which culminated in The Rise of Skywalker being just as divisive and controversial as The Last Jedi.
