Sinjir Rath Velus Unofficial Sinjir artwork by a loyalty officer, Sinjir Rath Velus made sure to spot any weaknesses in his peers to ensure the stability of the Galactic Empire. So in honour of Pride month, I would like to highlight a few of the amazing, canonically Queer and non-binary characters from all over the galaxy. Kemp, the novel follows Moff Mors–an imperial who has made some serious mistakes and also happens to be a lesbian.
The first canonically gay character was introduced in the 2015 novel Lords of the Sith. Headcanons only go so far–even when they are the headcanons of licensed, published Star Wars authors.Īnd while live-action LGBTQ+ characters are nowhere to be found on-screen, the expanded canon is making more of an effort to better represent everyone. The writer not including anything about him being Queer in the actual film, but stating it after its release is nothing more than lazy–and almost disrespectful–queerbaiting. These efforts seem genuinely well-intentioned, but they also feel somewhat invalidating, as real on-screen representation is a big deal. Are you a man or a woman? Like, who cares? Have a good time out here. It just didn’t seem that weird to me ’cause I feel like if you’re in space, it’s kind of like, the door is open! It’s like, no only guys or girls. He’s like having like a ’70s swing - yeah. There are so many things to have sex with. When asked about his thoughts on the matter, he replied by posing the question ‘how can you not be pansexual in space?’ He elaborated on the topic by explaining that he didn’t think it was a big deal anyway: Donald Glover, who portrayed Calrissian in the film, was also pretty enthusiastic about the character being sexually fluid. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)īack in 2018, Solo: A Star Wars Story writer John Kasdan publicly stated that Lando Calrissian was, in fact, pansexual. Finn and Poe became a popular internet ship almost immediately after The Force Awakens premiered, but there has been no real indicator of either character being Queer. Now when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation specifically, the Disney-era Star Wars films have given fans nothing more than hope. And while Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) are both cis white women, it was still a nice reminder that not every heroine has to be a young woman in her twenties. For example, before Star Wars: The Last Jedi, no two female characters over 50 years old, had spoken to one another in a Star Wars movie. It’s also about sexuality, body types, age, and disabilities. The lack of representation is not just about race and/or ethnicity, either.
The books, comics, and animated series have some of the most diverse characters the franchise has ever seen, yet there is still a significant amount of work to be done with live-action.
What makes this issue even more aggravating is the fact that the current canon outside the films is doing an incredible job at showcasing that Star Wars is indeed, for everyone.
In a galaxy so big-and supposedly diverse-it’s like, statistically impossible at this point. And while some progress has been made regarding male representation, women of colour with significant speaking roles were nowhere to be found pre-Rose Tico. To start, I’d like to point out that the five main female protagonists of the trilogies and anthology films have all been cis, white brunettes. It’s not really a secret that on-screen representation in the live-action Star Wars films is lacklustre, to say the least.