Star Wars: Breaking Social Convention Using the Force

Action movies have a way of getting our heart rates up with non-stop thrills and adventure that keeps us on the edge of our seats. But in many action movies over the past decade the main protagonists have been written and cast as a white males of anglo-saxon descent . Superman, Batman, Spiderman (twice), Iron Man, Captain America. The list goes on for miles. Which has been the norm within Hollywood in many movie genres, not just action. Hollywood has found a niche in writing cinematic films and casting them in a way that does not reflect our great American melting pot. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens, built their cast, and many saw a black guy as one of the main characters people were up in arms and all kinds of upset. Why? When other people found out a woman would also be a main character people felt they weren't sure how that "was gonna work". Why? Do we not think that a black man and a woman as main characters have the ability to carry the plot of one of the most memorable franchises of many generations? Some of us are so used to seeing the conventional standard heroic mold, that it completely surprises us when that mold isn't followed. J.J Abrams has been trying to do just that by pushing for more diversity within Hollywood. He said this in an interview about a show he directed called Hart to Hart:

"We wrote these characters but when we went to cast it, one of the things I had felt, having been to the Emmys a couple times — you look around that room and you see the whitest f*cking room in the history of time. Its just unbelievably white. And I just thought, we’re casting this show and we have an opportunity to do anything we want, why not cast the show with actors of color? Like not for sure, and if we can’t find the actors who are great, we shouldn’t, but why don’t we make that effort because it wasn’t written that way and isn't that the cooler version of doing this as opposed to saying ‘this is an urban show’. It f*cking kills me when they call something ‘an urban movie’ like its a separate thing, like ‘its that thing over there."

So when he was given the opportunity to direct a completely original movie within the Star Wars franchise he ran with it. He believes representation within the media we view, as Americans in our everyday life is important, and so he did that in Star Trek, now in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He did this by not writing the characters into a certain skin appearance, he kept the casting open to people of any color and ethnicity. Making the roles more available to anyone allows for diversity within all media, which can help influence change in certain conventions and social norms we see all around us.