Director J.J. Abrams has delivered on his promise to promote LGBTQ inclusivity in the “Star Wars” universe by featuring the first lesbian kiss in the famous franchise’s history.
According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), the big moment comes during a celebration sequence in the film — effectively putting this on par with the supposedly first gay moment in “Beauty in the Beast” that hardly anyone seemed to notice.
“In a celebration sequence in the film, two female members of the Resistance share an exuberant kiss during the joyful moment. They are minor characters and not heavily featured in the film,” reports THR.
Leading up to the film’s release, J.J. Abrams promised that the LGBTQ community would feel represented in “The Rise of Skywalker.”
“In the case of the LGBTQ community, it was important to me that people who go to see this movie feel that they’re being represented in the film,” Abrams told Variety. “I will say I’m giving away nothing about what happens in the movie. But I did just say what I just said.”
The director’s pronouncement for LGBTQ representation had been long promised since the release of the earlier entrant in the Disney “Star Wars” trilogy, “The Force Awakens.”
“When I talk about inclusivity, it’s not excluding gay characters,” Abrams previously told The Daily Beast. “It’s about inclusivity. So of course. I would love it. To me, the fun of ‘Star Wars’ is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.”
Originally, fans of the new series wanted Disney to go in an ultra-revolutionary direction by sparking up a gay relationship between the characters Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac). Those hopes were dashed in the lead-up to the release of this latest installment.
“Personally, I kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would’ve been taken further in the other films, but I don’t have control,” Oscar Isaac told Variety. “It seemed like a natural progression, but sadly enough, it’s a time when people are too afraid, I think, of … I don’t know what.”
“But if they would’ve been boyfriends, that would have been fun,” added Isaac.
John Boyega simultaneously told Variety that the relationship between Poe and Finn “wouldn’t be too weird” if it suddenly advanced beyond the platonic.
“They’ve always had a quite loving and open relationship in which it wouldn’t be too weird if it went beyond it,” Boyega said. “But at the same time, they are just platonic at the moment.”
Most recently, executive producer Justin Ridge of the show “Star Wars: Resistance” revealed that two cartoon characters, Flix and Orka, are in fact gay lovers.
“They’re absolutely a gay couple, and we’re proud of that,” Ridge said, confirming what many fans had already suspected. “I think it’s safe to say they’re an item, absolutely.”
As stated earlier, the moment of LGBTQ representation in “Star Wars” recalls the “exclusively gay moment” that director Bill Condon exhibited in the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” involving Gaston’s sidekick LeFou.
“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Bill Condon told Attitude magazine. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings”