After criticism that the Star Wars franchise was “all white”, George Lucas has responded by pointing out that most of the characters are aliens. Lucas, the executive producer, writer, and director of the franchise as well as the creator and producer of the Indiana Jones series, responded during a talk at the Cannes Film Festival after receiving an honorary Palme d’Or Award. Speaking about the accusations, he stated, “They would say, ‘It’s all white men.’ Most of the people are aliens!”
Lucas argued that if discrimination exists in the universe of the films, it is designed to be against robots and that the films did include actors from different racial backgrounds. “In the first one, there were a few Tunisians who were dark, and in the second one I had Billy Williams, and the [prequels], which they were also criticizing, I had Samuel L. Jackson,” he stated. “He wasn’t a scoundrel like Lando. He was one of the top Jedi.”
Lucas is reported to have accumulated a fortune of $5.5 billion (£4.3 billion), making him the richest celebrity in the world. His production company, Lucasfilm, was sold to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion, and he has gone on to produce the later films in the Star Wars series along with other projects. Disney has made approximately $12 billion (£9.4 billion) from the Star Wars franchise, tripling their profit from the purchase, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year.
In his early career, Lucas also wrote and directed the 1973 hit, American Graffiti, for which he received Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. In other Star Wars news, a new 50p coin emblazoned with the Millennium Falcon is set to be released this year
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