In the wake of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its unflinching portrayal of strong relationships, it’s no wonder fandom jumped all over the possibility that some of those fictional characters could very well be more than friends based on their on-screen interactions.
The Star Wars fandom has been especially vocal about the potential for a Finn/Poe romance (which star John Boyega initially nixed before saying he’d be open to whatever direction the character goes in). But barring romantic shipping, fans are also calling for Star Wars to just go ahead and finally depict a queer character in the universe–with Poe Dameron getting the biggest vote thus far.
In an interview earlier this week at the Bad Robot offices, The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams said the possibility of a gay character in the Star Wars universe certainly isn’t out of the question:
To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.
While there have been instances of canonically queer Star Wars characters included in tie-in novels and other aspects of the franchise (many are recently citing the lead character in Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath, which follows an Imperial officer who decides to join the Rebellion), there hasn’t been one officially identifiable queer character in the films. Unfortunately, many are reporting Abrams’ quote as a certain fact that we will be getting a gay character in Star Wars–when really, all it sounds like is that he’s open to the possibility, just like the rest of us are.
Time will tell.
(via Polygon)
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