For the most part, the world ofStar Warsfans at large seem to be very happy with whatJ.J. Abramswas able to do withStar Wars: The Force Awakens. The franchise has had new life breathed into it, and there are a lot of reasons for that. One of the biggest things that people latched onto inThe Force Awakenswas the new, diverse cast members such asJohn BoyegaandOscar Isaac. As it turns out, Disney supposedly didn’t originally want that to be the case.
In a recent report fromStar Wars News Net, a fan site who consistently reports scoops on all thingsStar Warsrelated, claims that Disney was trepidatious about including non-white characters prominently inThe Force Awakens. The information came to light at a recent art and industry conference in New Zealand.Star Warsconcept artistIain McCaigspoke at the conference and according to the report, claimed that it was only because ofJ.J. Abramsthat some diversity made its way into the movie. Here is what the report had to say.
“Disney execs were reluctant to include non-Caucasian characters. The new trio were all initially all Caucasian, but it was JJ’s favoring of Boyega that brought about VII’smulti-culturedcharacter set.”
Disney gaveAbramsa lot of trust withThe Force Awakens, letting him have a lot of creative control and say over the entire process. So it makes sense that his favoring of the right person for the part,John Boyegafor Finn in this case, ultimately won out over the studios fear about including people of color in their newStar Warsfranchise movies. This clearly also led toOscar Isaacgetting a shot at the role of Poe, and the interaction between those two characters wound up being one of everyone’s favorite things aboutThe Force Awakens, so it is good thatAbramsgot his way.
Not only did the casting choices benefit the fans in terms of quality, but Disney is currently getting a lot of heat for a lack of diversity in some of their movies, andThe Force Awakensis actually a bright spot for the studio right now. It features a prominent, female lead and characters of color as her co-stars. On the flip side of things, the Marvel movies, most recentlyDoctor Strange, have received a lot of flack for whitewashing, having castTilda Swintonin the role of The Ancient One, who is traditionally an Asian man in the comics. Disney is doing their best to course correct, but it looks like they saved some face without even knowing it during production forEpisode VII.
McCaighas a long history with theStar Wars franchise. He worked closely withGeorge Lucason all three of the prequel movies, and was a concept artist onThe Force Awakens.McCaigalso reportedly worked withLucason a draft forThe Force Awakensthat was rejected by Disney, because they wanted to avoid the use of anything prequel related, and his script was supposedly very heavy on those elements. There is no way of knowing for sure how deeply committed Disney was to whitewashingThe Force Awakensas well, but in the end, it didn’t really matter and the studio appears to be making strides for the better.
