Maduri: The New Character Would Honor Those Killed in Orlando
DISNEY – In the wake of the Orlando shooting, an online petition is getting thousands of signatures. It’s demanding that the next Star Wars movie an LGBT character to “fight evil.” Apparently they think that the best way fight homophobia is with The Force.
This is a ridiculous effort. People go to Star Wars movies for escapism. To see a galaxy far, far away. Not to see an activist agenda. Star Wars is not the place to resolve our nation’s social ills. If you want that, go see a Michael Moore movie. Don’t mess with the Empire.
Some background on the story – IGN Comics editor Joshua Yehl, was a friend of Christopher Andrew “Drew” Leinonen — one of the 49 victims of the mass shooting that took place at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando.
Yehl started an online petition on Change.org asking Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy to immortalize him in the next Star Wars film — as the saga’s first ever LGBT character.
Yehl has garnered nearly 5,000 signatures, using the hashtag #PutDrewInStarWars on social media to spread the word. He writes that an LGBT character would not just be for Leinonen but for all the Orlando shooting victims.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” director J.J. Abrams said earlier this year that the film franchise is about inclusivity and welcomes the idea of having a gay character.
“I would love it,” he said in an interview with the The Daily Beast. “To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.”
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