Star Wars creator George Lucas recently hit back at critics of his legendary film series who suggested the movies don’t feature enough diversity. Some have argued that Star Wars movies are “racist” and harbor sexist attitudes toward women.
However, Lucas combatted the longstanding criticism toward the classic films, which supposedly featured an over-abundance of white men and downplayed the roles of their female characters. He addressed the negative opinions on Star Wars at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival after being awarded the highly coveted Palme d’Or.
According to reports, Lucas said, “They would say, ‘It’s all white men. Most of the people are aliens!” The creator further dismissed claims that he was propagating a message of white supremacy. “The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever. The idea is all people are equal,” he added.
Lucas emphasized that the only characters in his movies who were blatantly discriminated against were robots. “That was a way of saying, you know, people are always discriminating against something and sooner or later, that’s what’s going to happen,” he explained. “I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.’”
The creator of the famous series further disagreed with accusations that there was a lack of diversity in Star Wars. “In the first one, there were a few Tunisians who were dark,” he said, “and in the second one I had Billy Williams, and the [prequels], which they were also criticizing, I had Sam Jackson. He wasn’t a scoundrel like Lando. He was one of the top Jedi.”
Continuing to pick apart the arguments of Star Wars’ detractors, Lucas said, “Who do you think the heroes are in these stories?” He went on, “What do you think Princess Leia was? She’s the head of the rebellion. 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.”
Speaking at the Cannes festival, Lucas discussed how he prioritizes his own creativity, refusing to concede to the interests of others. “Well, I say I’m a stubborn guy. And I didn’t want people telling me how to make my movies. I just said it’s easy,” he said.
He continued, “I don’t like focus groups. I don’t like those kind of things they do afterwards where they ask people, well, it’s what kind of movie do you want to see? Like, the audience doesn’t know what they want to see. You have to say I’m going to make the movie. I’m going to do what I do, which is the way I do it the way I like it.”
Lucas lamented how modern film studies will place too much emphasis on audience opinion when crafting a movie, instead of relying on their ingenuity. “The studio’s go to the point where it’s like, they let the audience actually make the movie and of course now they go crazy. That’s what they do. It’s all about what are the fans think? That isn’t the way you make a movie. The way you make a movie is to find somebody who knows how to make movies, has a story to tell as passionate about it, and makes the movie,” he said.
Featured image credit: nicolas genin, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Lucas_cropped_2009.jpg
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