Actor John Boyega attacks Star wars fans for his career

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true, but I would throw tolkien, JK Rowling, George RR Martin, Suzanne Collins and Stephanie Meyer into the fantasy genre which tends to attract the same audience as Sci Fi. Characters are designed for the same demographic.

No, they aren’t typically “designed” for the same demographic. While some like both, others like fantasy but not science fiction and vice versa. They are different genres. You can’t include Tolkien among science fiction authors and expect people to take your argument seriously.

Also, whataboutism doesn’t invalidate the remarks Boyega made or the racism (and sexism) tied to the production of Star Wars.

He's 10 years too late then. He knew what he was signing up for back in 2014, he's a fan after all.

I should have said fantasy.

No, I don’t think he could’ve known. It’s not the sort of thing you can know until you are immersed in it. At least that’s what actor after actor has said. It’s impossible to know what the fan situation will be like before making a series of films even if you are a long-time fan.

It sounds like he was aware of the racism in Star Wars historically but had expected that times had changed. He realized that they hadn’t as much as he believed they had and grew disillusioned with the franchise as a result, especially when the storyline with his character proved a bit disappointing in the 2nd and 3rd films. It seems reasonable to me. Sure, fans aren’t directly responsible for that, but there may have been concerns about what would appeal to fans due to its overwhelmingly White and overwhelmingly male legacy. It’s improving, especially in its inclusion of women, but it’s not quite there yet.

This is why I can't stand American movies anymore and I only watch indie or foreign stuff.

I watch stuff to be entertained. To forget that the whole world is a screwed up place full of racism, sexism, homophobia, and America's domineering politics.

women were never really into Sci-fi were they? Sci-fi has always been a male "basement nerd" special interest.

No, that’s a generalization. Plenty of women are into science fiction. I often was although my special interests tend to come and go. When I went to Fan Expo in Philly last year, there was no shortage of female Star Wars fans there eager to see interviews with actors and engage in the same nerdy activities as their male counterparts.

Actually star wars now is very multicultural
thousands of Clones, Jango Fett, Boba Fett - Moari actor temeura Morrison
Ashoka - Rosario Dawson - Afro-Cuban
Mace windu - Samuel L. Jackson - African American
Lando - Billy D.williams and Donald Glover - African American
Darth Vader - James earl Jones - African American
Jar Jar Binks and Jedi Kelleren Beq - Ahmed Best African American
Finn - John Boyega - Nigerian
Rose tico - Kelly Marie tran - Vietnamese
Poe - Oscar Isaac - Guetamalan
Greef Karga - Carl weathers - African American
Reeva - Moses Ingram - African American
Osha and Mae- Amandla Stenberg - African American
Jedi Sol - Lee Jung-jae - Korean
Lauren Brady as young Osha=African American
Leah Brady as young Mae - African American
Mother Anesiya - Jodie turner Smith - Afro-Caribbean
the Stranger - Manny Jacinto - Filipino
Carson teva - Paul Sun-Hyung Lee - Korean
Cassian Andor - Diego Luna - Mexican
Bix - Andria Arjona - Puerto rican
Canta Caz - Varada Sethu - Indian
Forest whitaker - Saw Gerrera - African American

etc...

I'm sure Mary Shelly has a few words to say on the matter.

Much like today, often times, women simply weren't welcome in nerdspace - no matter how much they wanted to be there.

Additionally, it's worth note that many authors don't mention the race of their characters whatsoever, and odds are it just gets assumed that the person must be white by the reader, even though the author may not have even thought about it.

There are also authors like Niven and Smith, who explicitly write about cultures that have moved so far beyond race and color, that people genetically alter their bodies with all kinds of exotic color patterns and aesthetic choices, or there are so many species from different planets, not only do humanoids come in every color of the rainbow - and sometimes are rainbow colored - but there are more species that are non-human and non-humanoid, than human.

Smith also often wrote about women in power, women with strength, competent women, women who were tougher than men, etc, as early as the 1920's.

four things have happened in the internet age. First there's been a massive inflation in sci-fi via cable and online media aimed at increasing the market-share of a female audience.
Second, Netflix, Amazon and Disney make/offer new content (anime, animated, CGI and real life) almost every week.
third the number of female characters in sci-fi has skyrocketed. Modern Sci-Fi now has female lead roles.
And finally the proof is in the numbers. I've been in the Melbourne convention centre when they are hosting comi-con and the number of females arriving in cosplsay > males. this seems to fly in the face of polls which claim only 15-30% of fans are female. My guess is female fans aren't as vocal or try and insert themselves into social media or join male dominated platforms like Star wars theory which we know is predominantly white and male.

Female fans happily consume sci-fi but share their special interest in their own spaces.

Focusing on John Boyega's lament on Star wars being a white space. when George Lucas first wrote star wars in the 1970s he imagined a galaxy where humans reflecting the society he lived in. I assume Lucas was a sci-fi fan so read mainstream sci-fi from the 1960s/70s. Naturally like most before him he created main characters with whom his audience could relate. the Skywalkers (Luke, Aniken and Leia), Han Solo and a cool alien named Chewbacca. Nothing surprising, main protagonists where white males (Leia was largely a side character). Lucas hadn't done anything different to other sci-fi authors. even in the UK, Dr who and Blakes 7 were an all english cast.

So yes, as with Hunger games, Game of thrones and Harry Potter (in the fantasy genre) you are correct, the original books didn't make race a significant factor but the author's descriptions make it clear Hermoine Grainger, Rue or the Targaryen's were white to the reader. In the film adaptations the authors gave their blessings to a far more multicultural casting reflecting a changing audience.

I think, therefore John Boyega's comments are expressing his personal frustration with how the fandom looks. It's ignorant of the history of how the fandom came to be. Nobody is gatekeeping the fandom. John (who I like as a person and actor) should encourage black and brown people to join these spaces and carve out their out their own space (I am seeing a lot more POCs creating social media content to counter some of the star wars grifters).

"Nobody is gatekeeping the fandom"? That's a good one.

Lucas and Roddenberry were both avid readers of the Smith fella I mentioned previously.

Yes, there is more female and PoC representation in media today - and just look at how much people complain about it.

In Star wars there are diverse voices. It's a vocal minority who triggered John into making his comments (and/or his way of showing Disney he's open to reappraise his character of Finn).

I wish John didn't react like Ahmed Best, Amandla Stenberg or Moses Ingram. I think each of them over-catastrophised and associated all star wars fans as racist when clearly (speaking for myself at least) we are not. In comparison Daisy Ridley, Hayden Christensen and Jake Lloyd were much more mercilessly attacked by a larger section of fans but have never spoke ill about the fandom.

Acting is just a gig. John Boyega should realise he has 400,000 followers on Social media which dwarfs Hayden Christensen (who only has 34,000 followers) and Daisey Ridley (has 35,000 followers). His comments only end up hurting his own fans.

Some Star Wars fans are racist. (He wasn’t claiming ALL are.)

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-44320-001

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/11025097 ... ges-disney

Correlation is not causation. the article makes some horrible generalisations about stars wars fans.

read John's other comments carefully.
“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something,” Boyega said in the documentary.
“They’re okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just a bit too much! They’re pandering,'”

John completely ignores that his character is actually very popular with star wars fans. If it was a white space then why does he have 10x more followers > Daisey Ridley the main star?

Second the decision to make him play second fiddle to Rey (Ridley) and Ben (Driver) had nothing to do with fans (note John uses "they" to denote fans. It was actually a) a marketing decision by Disney to promote star wars in China (a market worth multi-millions in cinema tickets and merchandise and b) to align with Star wars Lucas Film president, Kathleen Kennedy's philosophy the force is female. She was instrumental in elevating Rey to become a Skywalker.

If John wanted to comment on racism in a small segment of the fandom (yes they exist and he knew it when he signed up), then why call all of star wars a "white space", that's BS.
the biggest star wars channels in the world are run by Niatoos Dadbeh (a Lebanese Canadian) and his good friend tyrone Magnus (African American). together they have 6 millions subs. the fans on their channels are from all over ethe world.

Despite all this I want to see Finn again, and see John reappraise his role, just not be so hard on the fans, we like you John!