A few days after the election, Rogue One screenwriter Chris Weitz and Gary Whitta, another writer who worked on the film, kicked a reactionary hornet’s nest on social media. In the wake of Donald Trump’s win, Weitz tweeted, “Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization,” to which Whitta chimed in, “Opposed by a multi-cultural group led by brave women.” (Both tweets have since been deleted.)
As takes go, these aren’t particularly chancy ones — Nazi Germany has provided inspiration for the Empire from the start of the Star Wars franchise, and Whitta was pointing out an unmissable fact of casting. But because we’re now, astonishingly, living in a moment in which equating white supremacy with evil can be considered a bridge too far, the portion of Twitter that’d describe itself as alt-right exploded with rage. They were also spurred on by falsified claims that a version of the film had called Donald Trump — not a known part of the Star Wars universe — a racist, and by their insistence that studio entertainment and politics shouldn’t mix.
The hashtag, #DumpStarWars, was spawned.
we’re now, astonishingly, living in a moment in which equating white supremacy with evil can be considered a bridge too far
Of Course “Rogue One” Is Political
Published
Mooncustafer 