George Lucas responds to ‘Star Wars’ “all white” diversity criticism: “Most of the people are aliens!”

nme.com:

Star Wars films were “all white”, countering that “most of the people are aliens”.Lucas was the executive producer, writer and director of the Star Wars franchise up until Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005, and also conceived and produced the Indiana Jones film series.Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival after receiving an honorary Palme d’Or Award, he responded to the accusation directly.“They would say, ‘It’s all white men’,” he said (via Variety). “Most of the people are aliens!”“The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are, whether they’re big and furry or whether they’re green or whatever.

The idea is all people are equal.”He went on to argue that if discrimination exists in the universe of the films, then it is designed to be against robots.“That was a way of saying, you know, people are always discriminating against something and sooner or later, that’s what’s going to happen.

I mean, we’re already starting with AI, saying, ‘Well, we can’t trust those robots.’”Lucas continued by saying 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 Sam Jackson,” he argued. “He wasn’t a scoundrel like Lando.

He was one of the top Jedi.”In April, Lucas was revealed to be the richest celebrity in the world, topping the annual Forbes list of celebrity billionaires.