A woman who writes about movies for Mashable has a major complaint about the Star Wars franchise: all the films are created by white men.
Forget the fact that George Lucas, who created Star Wars, is a white guy who created the very universe that Angie Han of Mashable has issues with — she’s on a mission to make sure that the identity politics of the current political climate makes its way into Star Wars, too.
Han quotes Maureen Ryan of Variety, noting 24 people have been hired to “direct, write, or otherwise take the creative lead” on a Star Wars movie over the past 41 years. Han points out that only one of the 24 people was a white woman, and zero have been people of color.
Uh-oh.
Han continues, “By continuing to hire only white men, Lucasfilm is not helplessly reflecting some unfortunate but unchangeable norm. It’s making an active choice to reinforce a status quo that rewards white men while systematically shutting out anyone else.”
Han rips the choice of the Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to be the next people to take the reins of StarWars, writing, “ … their movie-writing résumé is spotty … their writing on Game of Thrones leaves something to be desired (season 7, woof) … their work reflects some massive blind spots when it comes to race and gender. … In other words, it requires a leap of faith on our part to see these guys as good choices for Star Wars.”
Han argues, “ … non-white and non-male directors are trapped in a hellish cycle of being unable to gain the right experience because they don’t already have the right experience. Lucasfilm has the chance to break that cycle by taking a chance on a non-male or non-white director, the way they’ve continually taken chances on white guys. So far, they’ve declined. … It’s troubling that one of the biggest fantasy franchises in Hollywood is only interested in what white men think the universe could or should look like … the idea that we ought to be patient is, to be frank, some f**king bulls**t. Fans are annoyed this week because we’ve been waiting for this franchise to become more inclusive, for four decades now.”
Han adds:
For that incredible tolerance, the only rewards we’ve gotten so far are eventuallys and possiblys and maybe next times – and those only because we’ve pressed Lucasfilm on these issues, time and time again. It is no longer enough to hear that Star Wars’ creative team might get more inclusive someday, and we’ve nothing to lose by pointing out that they’ve continued to fail us. The effect of these decisions, about who gets to be behind the camera, is not merely cosmetic. It’s troubling that one of the biggest – most beloved, most famous, most inescapable – fantasy franchises in Hollywood is, apparently, only interested in showing us what a very specific subset of humans think the world could or should look like. …
By refusing to let anyone but white men play in their sandbox, Lucasfilm is closing itself off to a wealth of new ideas that could keep this galaxy fresh and interesting, to people that might explore new corners that would otherwise go overlooked.
It’s a remarkable thing that leftists argue that one’s imagination is limited by their sex or color of their skin. Wasn’t it Shakespeare who wrote “Othello”? Wasn’t it Harper Lee who wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird?” Wasn’t it Steven Spielberg who made “Amistad”? Wasn’t it Bernardo Bertolucci who directed “The Last Emperor?”, which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture?
The list is endless.