There is little to no doubt that George Lucas is a legendary name in the film business. As the proponent of the epic Star Wars franchise, the now 80-year-old gave the world one of the most famous fantasy series of all time. The director of the original movie, and executive producer of the two sequels, Lucas returned to direct the prequel trilogy series as well, from 1995-2005.
While the series in itself is generally considered flawless, there is one major element of the six movies that have been criticized, time and again. This is the fact that all the human characters in the movie only featured white actors, suggesting that black people simply do not exist in the space saga.
While such a move would have been a huge problem in today’s climate, George Lucas recently went into detail about this aspect of the series. Instead of admitting that there was something grossly wrong in the entire saga featuring only white actors, he claimed that people should accept the characters ‘for what they are.’
Fans are not delighted with George Lucas’s take on why Star Wars only had white actors
While nobody is accusing George Lucas of racism, there is little doubt that an all-white cast representing the entirety of humanity in the six initial movies is problematic. Such casting decisions are bound to be driven to the ground in today’s atmosphere, and the fact that it was not severely scrutinized when the movies were first released is simply a reflection of society.
Regardless, rather than accepting the mistake, George Lucas recently seemed to suggest that questioning the cast choices itself might be somewhat racist. While the director did not say exactly that, his interview with Variety saw him ask people to accept the characters as they are:
They would say, ‘It’s all white men. Most of the people are aliens! 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.
However, there is a clear problem with the notion, which George Lucas further delved into via the following statement, claiming that the only people discriminated against in the saga were aliens (and not people!):
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. I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.’
Of course, fans were also seemingly unimpressed, as a range of users took to Twitter to air their thoughts:
All people are equal…except when it comes to casting lmfao
— Swolku (@JerbearFreeman) May 24, 2024
Boomer
— Ben (@NugsFan88) May 24, 2024
Chewbacca is BROWN
— DatGuySolid (@DatGuySolid) May 24, 2024
George Lucas hates Social Justice Warriors. Its confirmed.
— Dataracer (@Dataracer117) May 24, 2024
Lucas is perhaps slightly off base (in the specific quote in the article anyways). Star Wars did not have particularly progressive casting for the time (in either trilogy) but it also isnt particularly egregious. There is a lot of credit he deserves and room for improvement
— Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy When? (@RJSWtrilogyWhen) May 24, 2024
Darth Vader was black. I could tell by the voice.
— Robert S. Robbins (@Robert_Robbins) May 24, 2024
but in his films they were all white and black no latin no chinese no japanese no other humans except black and white
— Kyle Jung Mun Lim (@Goslingsawagrin) May 24, 2024
There is an obvious problem with George Lucas’s defense of Star Wars’ all-white cast
Lucas seemed to conveniently skip past the argument meted out against his movies. While he claimed that most of the characters ‘were aliens,’ and should be accepted exactly how they are, there were a number of human characters in the series as well. He claimed that all the characters should be accepted for how they were, regardless of whether they were green, big, or furry.
In his own words, the idea is to accept people for what they are, regardless of their differences, a concept which he seemingly was able to flesh out with respect to the aliens in his saga. However, the variance of features that he talks about was simply not afforded to the human beings in the saga, with respect to one very crucial and traditionally controversial (to say the least) feature of the human race: skin color.
George Lucas. (Credit: Lucasfilm)
On one hand, he wants his audience to accept the characters as they are, irrespective of the fact that they are all, well, white! On the other, he wants his audience to accept all beings irrespective of their features. However, how will they, if one particular, very important feature is a commonality between all of them?
The fact is that the casting choices in the saga were in itself a by-product of changing times. The fact that Lucas was able to pull off such a cast for so long suggests that audiences were simply not sensitive to various important factors, something which is simply not true in today’s world.
Of course, moving past Geoerge Lucas’s arguments, his inability to recognize the casting choices as a problem itself suggests a more concerning way of thinking. Lucas’s statement, or ones similar to it, can be used effectively as an argument against every question related to inclusivity, whether it is with respect to skin color, or gender. What if all the humans in Star Wars were men?
Lucas could have said something similar, and claimed that his characters must be accepted for exactly who they are. But they were all women?
So much so, for inclusion, and so much so, for changing times and society’s ideals. Hence, fans have every right to criticize him, simply because the creator should have accepted the criticism against his casting choices as a result of a rightful change in the audiences’ thinking, something which is for the better, for everybody involved.
