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Entertainment
The Growing Diversity of ‘Star Wars’
Published 3:12 PM EDT, Tue March 10, 2015
The upcoming Star Wars novel, “Lords of the Sith,” will feature the first gay character in the official Star Wars canon, the lesbian Imperial official Moff Mors.The cast of the first “Star Wars” movie in 1977 was all white and predominantly male. Since then, the sci-fi franchise has slowly moved towards greater diversity in its roles.Billy Dee Williams was the first — and for a while, the only — African-American actor to hold a prominent role in the series, appearing in “The Empire Strikes Back” and then “Return of the Jedi.”One of the most divisive characters in the “Star Wars” series was Jar Jar Binks, the computer-generated amphibian voiced by actor Ahmed Best in 1999’s “Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.” Jar Jar was widely booed for what some felt was a stereotypical accent and appearance that the Wall Street Journal likened to a “Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit.” Best rejected the criticism, calling it “really stupid.”Hugh Quarshie played Captain Panaka, the bodyguard for Natalie Portman’s Queen Amidala character in “The Phantom Menace.”Latino actor Jimmy Smits played Senator Bail Organa in “Episode II: Attack of the Clones.”Samuel L. Jackson played Jedi Master Mace Windu in “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.”Actor John Boyega also will appear in the next Star Wars film. He popped up, literally, in the first trailer for the film, generating complaints from some fans about “black stormtroopers.” He told them to “get over it.”
