“Star Wars” creator George Lucas defended the franchise from criticism that it was mostly composed of white males on Friday at the Cannes Film Festival.
The 80-year-old was at the festival to receive Palme d’Or honors on Saturday at the closing ceremony when he made the comments about the first six movies of “Star Wars.”
‘People are always discriminating against something.’
“They would say, ‘It’s all white men.’ I’d say, it’s not. Most of the people are aliens,” he said, according to People magazine.
“And the idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green and whatever — the idea is all people are equal,” he added.
He went on to point out that his original movies only showed discrimination against robots and droids.
“And that was a way of saying, people are always discriminating against something, and sooner or later, that’s what’s going to happen,” he continued. “I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.’”
He cited several minority actors who were featured in the original movies including Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian and Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu in the prequel movies.
Lucas then pointed to the strong female characters in the franchise.
“Who do you think the heroes are in these stories? What do you think Princess Leia was? She’s the head of the rebellion,” Lucas added. “She’s the one that’s taking this young kid who doesn’t know anything and this boisterous, I-know-everything guy who can’t do anything and trying to save the rebellion with these clowns.”
Lucas became fabulously wealthy as a result of the lucrative deal he struck to receive merchandise royalties from the “Star Wars” movies. He later became even more fabulously wealthy when he sold the franchise to Disney in 2012 for $4.05 billion.
While many fans saw the Disney purchase as a new hope for the franchise, the subsequent trilogy of movies has angered many by dismantling some of the popular narratives of the original storyline.
‘Why does everything new have to undermine what came before?’
Critics have already lined up to warn fans that the next “Star Wars” show to be released will likely have woke elements owing to far-left statements made previously by the director and other principle
“It looks like this series is going to be the worst that Disney ‘Star Wars’ has ever seen,” said Lauren Chen of “Pseudo-Intellectual” on Blaze Media. “Why does everything now have to be subversive? Why does everything new have to undermine what came before?”
Despite that disappointment among many fans, Disney has recently said it has made almost $12 billion from the sci-fi franchise.
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