by Sam H.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy itself is a mess – sure, the movies were box office hits, but in terms of everything else, it’s a sad representation of Star Wars. While the mishandling came from the corporate side, fan reception had a huge impact on the movies as well. With each new sequel trilogy movie, the fan reactions revealed more and more about fandom politics when it comes to diversity, especially those for large franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.
To provide some context, the Star Wars sequel trilogy started with The Force Awakens, which featured Daisy Ridley as Rey, the first woman main protagonist in Star Wars movies, John Boyega as Finn, the first Black lead in Star Wars, and Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, the first Latino lead in Star Wars. In the second movie, The Last Jedi, Kelly Marie Tran was introduced as Rose Tico, the first Asian lead in Star Wars. Historically, Star Wars has never been an extremely diverse franchise, so having multiple people of color as leads in the sequel trilogy was a drastic change from the past. However, fan reactions varied as there were some fans who celebrated and happily embraced the diversity, while others resented the introduction of these new characters of color. These reactions intensified after the final movie, The Rise of Skywalker, led to people pointing out how terribly the characters of color had been handled throughout the trilogy.
Speaking personally, my reaction matched the latter – as someone who grew up watching Star Wars, I had always wished to see someone who looked like me in the movies, which is why I was excited when I saw Rose. Yet, when I went online, I found that thousands of people were harassing Kelly Marie Tran for her role, so much so that she had to delete social media. Similarly, John Boyega faced harassment from racist fans and has spoken out about facing mistreatment during his Star Wars experience. What’s more concerning about this situation is that Disney didn’t attempt to protect the actors of color from harassment. These actors had only been able to speak out about the harsh fan treatment and Disney’s mishandling after the series had concluded.
The split between the fandom as a result of the diversity in the sequel trilogy is a funhouse mirror version of the modern political scale. A large majority of people fall somewhere within the scale, and there are small but vocal conglomerates at the extreme ends of the spectrum. Vocal is an extremely important keyword to consider. Most people who watched The Last Jedi and didn’t really like Rose Tico probably weren’t writing angry comments online or making YouTube videos in their basements hating on Kelly Marie Tran, but those who did influenced why Rose Tico barely had any screentime in The Rise of Skywalker despite being a pivotal character in The Last Jedi. The main reason why for this decision, as well as every other decision Disney has made, is money. Attention from fans, whether bad or good, indicates the possible performance of the film at the box office.
This might not seem like a big deal when looking at the fandom up close and examining the individual takes on either side of the spectrum, but pulling back the lens to look at this as a whole, the fact that the reaction of a group of vocal fans can worsen the mishandling of diverse characters affects the movies that reach casual fans. While supporting actors of color and improving diverse representation in the movies might result in the loss of revenue from racist devotees, the positive social impact of supporting diverse would benefit the greater general audience, especially since Star Wars is such a large franchise that has an international reach. Especially considering how Star Wars is a story about fighting fascism and oppression, the franchise’s decision to allow oppressive ideals from scared conservatives to influence the direction of their movies is glumly ironic.
Star Wars isn’t the only franchise where the fandom has fragmented to imitate a political spectrum, but it certainly is an interesting one to study. Providing a complete analysis of the reasons why the sequel trilogy had caused such a divide within the fandom when considering diversity is a nearly impossible task, especially when considering not only the fan reactions but the cruel corporate mishandling of actors of color. While analyzing this situation involves viewing fandoms as a collective with groups that hold differing ideas, it’s also important to remember that fandoms, like countries, are composed of individuals and that certain individuals and groups are not completely representative of the fandom as a whole. Still, that doesn’t mean they do not have a quantifiable and noticeable impact on the media and its influence. It’s fruitless to urge corporations to act against their nature and consider the social impact of their decisions in media over their financial gain to add to their largely accumulated wealth due to media conglomerates, but discussing fandom politics can help everyday consumers like us consider what kind of media we’re supporting and consider how we can rally together to support diverse representation to combat the negativity spread by bigoted fans.