Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram has said the upcoming series is the ‘most diverse’ Star Wars project yet.
Ahead of the show’s air date on May 27, the Queen’s Gambit actor told The Independent Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to ‘bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before’.
‘Long Overdue’
During the interview, the 29-year-old – who plays the role of Inquisitor Reva, an underling to Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen), opposite Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan – said the diversity the highly-anticipated series will bring is ‘long overdue’.
‘Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before. To me, it’s long overdue,’ she explained, ‘If you’ve got talking droids and aliens, but no people of colour, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s 2022, you know.
‘So we’re just at the beginning of that change. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it.’
‘Pockets of hate’
However, with this new inclusivity and diversity, Ingram explained she was actually ‘warned’ by Star Wars’ production company LucasArts racist hate was ‘a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen’.
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She said: ‘It was something that Lucasfilm actually got in front of, and said, “This is a thing that, unfortunately, likely will happen. But we are here to help you; you can let us know when it happens”.’
Ingram also credited director Deborah Chow for putting the proper systems in place so I feel safe as we do the work.’
‘Of course there are always pockets of hate but I have no problem with the block button,’ she added.
Previous lack of diversity
This isn’t the only time the franchise has faced comments for its lack of diversity, in 2020 John Boyega said he felt his character was ‘pushed to the side’, in an interview with GQ.
He said: ‘You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.’
The British actor accused the company of giving all the ‘nuance’ to his white co-stars. He said: ‘They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.’
