So what is this Rogue One? It doesn’t seem to follow on from Force Awakens. What happened to super-cool, kick-ass heroine Rey?
Well, Rey is not in this. Don’t expect her to pop up at any point. In fact, Rogue One is set decades earlier, and it ends apparently 10 minutes before the “first” Star Wars: A New Hope starts, as it follows a band of rebels led by ex-convict Jyn Erso in their attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star. There’s even a theory going around that Jyn Erso could be Rey’s mother. It’s the first in a series of planned spin-offs from the official saga. Another, planned for 2018, is set to focus on a young Han Solo, and yet another is rumoured to be the story of bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Felicity Jones, the actor who plays lead character Jyn Erso, said of the movie: “I’ve always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronise her. Particularly with Jyn, it’s such a rare opportunity to be able to play a female who’s not just thinking about (romantic) relationships.”
After Rey, some of the more laddish superfans are beginning to think there is a feminist conspiracy in the offing around Star Wars. A number of very vocal fans have been objecting. Some are funnier and politer than others. For instance, Dylan Twan tweeted: “I guess every Star Wars will have a female lead now, even Han Solo will be a woman in his movie.”
Others, like blogger David G Brown, appear to be fuming. “Like its trilogy predecessor, The Force Awakens,” he wrote, “this new instalment reiterates Disney’s hatred for white males. Unless, of course, they are cast as villains.”
Other conspiracy theorists are convinced it is anti-white propaganda as well. The multicultural rebel line-up, led by Jyn Erso, appears to be all too much for some on the white-supremacist alt-right. One poster on Reddit even described it as “anti-white engineering”. Another wrote: “Nearly all of the major characters are non-whites and the main character is an empowered white female. This film should be boycotted.”
Of course, this lot see it all as an attack on Donald Trump too. The hashtag #DumpStarWars was trending on Twitter after a news story emerged declaring that the film-makers had reshot certain scenes to make it into an anti-Trump film. This turned out to be fake news, though the film did reshoot some scenes. However, the alt-right’s ire had also been pumped up by tweets by Rogue One scriptwriter Chris Weitz that had appeared to protest the election of Trump. Among them, shortly after the election, was a tweet featuring the Rebel symbol from “Star Wars” with a safety pin through it and subtitled “Star Wars against hate. Spread it”. His November tweet, since deleted, said: “Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organisation.”
In reality, it is just a movie.
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