December 18 will bring “Star Wars: The force awakens” the seventh in the Star Wars franchise. The movie will bring back classic characters of series like, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker and introduce new characters Finn, played by John Boyega, and Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. When a trailer for the movie aired on October 19’s “Monday Night Football” there was backlash from fans upon learning that Boyega is Black. Twitter had #BoycottStarWarsVII trending with hundreds of thousands of posts within the day. One fan of the series was rumored to have taken their own life after the trailer aired.
This is an extreme in what is seen as discrimination of movies with established characters or productions. As of recent, movies of comic book, science fiction and fantasy origin have began what could be described as race-swapping characters. Some fans of the original franchise complain that doing this takes away from the original character or that the studios that agree with the race-swap are only doing this to appease minority audiences.
This was the subject of controversy for the recent “Fantastic Four” film. When fans of the comic book discovered that actor Michael B. Jordan, an African American, would play the Human Torch, who is Caucasian in the comic books, fans became visibly upset with the decision. Michael B. Jordan has done interviews about his role and knowing that there would be backlash by die-hard fans of the comic book series. On cinemablend.com, Michael B. Jordan said at press release that, “It was expected. You kind of know going into it that people are used to seeing something one way, it’s a continuity thing more than anything. People don’t like change too much. But annoyed? Eh, you just kind of accept it, it is what it is. You can’t make everybody happy. You just got to accept that and know. I’m an actor, I have to do my job. I’m going to do my job the best I can and the way I’ve been doing it my entire life, my entire career. I grew up a comic book guy, I read comic books as a kid growing up, and the Fantastic Four/Human Torch is one of my favorite characters so I’m going to give it my everything. I can’t wait. I don’t really let it bother me at all. I just want to go into it and do the best job I can. We’ll see what happens.”
DC comic book shows “The Flash” and the recently debuted “Supergirl” have also introduced characters from the comics who were originally white as black, such as Iris West, the love interest to the Flash, being played by Candice Patton and Jimmy Olsen, ally to Supergirl, being played by Mehcad Brooks.
Greg Berlanti, the producer of “The Flash” and “Supergirl” has said he likes the casting because it shows that “this is what America looks like.” In an interview with “The Advocate”, Berlanti praised writer/producer Shonda Rhimes for showing diversity in her shows, which inspired him to do the same. “I think Shonda Rhimes is still the best show runner in the business in terms of diversity in general and I respect a lot of what she’s done in that regard. We often say that we want our shows to look and feel like America looks, and that makes for better storytelling. It’s a conscious choice and so rewarding to do what we do.” In the same interview, Berlanti said that the best way of having a diverse show is by having a diverse group of people working behind the scenes. “More than half of the writing staff are women on both of the shows combined, but I say we can even be doing better with more female directors and that’s an area where I want to keep improving. It’s very easy in this business to do things the way you used to do them because it feels safe, but ultimately that doesn’t make things better. To make things better you have to commit to really making a change, and entertainment is better when there are different voices involved — it just is. So it’s nice to see the growth that’s happened over the past 15 years, but there’s opportunity for more.”
The website Newswatch.com reported that that Bobby Jo-Garrison, a 53-year-old man, had taken his own life, leaving a note asking for the “Star Wars” franchise to stay pure. This incident was proven false by projectcasting.com and doubtfulnews.com, calling out Newswatch.com as a false source for news.
However, #BoycottStarWarsVII were real posts, causing much upset when first shown on Twitter. Website Wired.co.uk showed several tweets and replies to hash tag, with the reason being that the film is “anti-white.” Some comments have read “#BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting white genocide.” Another account also used the hashtag because Episode VII was “basically ‘Deray in Space’,” a derogatory reference to American civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, and that “Jewish activist JJ Abrams is an anti-white nut.” The online community speculated that those who came up with hashtag may have done so just to “troll,”making deliberately offensive or provocative online postings with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response. If this was the reaction those that posted the hashtag were wanting, it was obviously received.
Jimaur Calhoun
Arts & Entertainment Director