As a work of art and a piece of popular culture, the Star Wars films have always been political. This has never been more apparent than in recent years, where in online circles an individual’s love (or hate) of specific Star Wars films is often used as a sort of locus to determine their political views. I believe that this is due, at least in part, to the specific coding and messaging built into the first three Star Wars films that were released under the Disney corporation (The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Last Jedi) of present-day anti-facism. But despite this messaging, I maintain that these films are not representative of modern revolutionary and anti-fascist culture, given the ethos of Disney and that of the Star Wars content it has released from 2018 to the present day.
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Works Cited
McMillan, Graeme. “‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ writers subtly protest Trump with a Rebellion safety pin logo.” Business Insider, 11 November 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/rogue-one-writers-protest-trump-with-a-rebellion-safety-pin-logo-2016-11. Accessed 22 November 2021.
Porter, Andrea. “‘Jarhead’ and the Failure of the Vietnam Myth.” CEA Critic, vol. 73 no. 1, Fall 2010, pp. 1-14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44378430
Proctor, William. “Rebel Yell: The Metapolitics of Equality and Diversity in Disney’s Star Wars.” Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change, edited by Henry Jenkins et al., NYU Press, 2020, pp. 35–42, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1jk0j2f.5.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Directed by Gareth Edwards, Lucasfilm Ltd., 2016.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Directed by J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot Productions and Lucasfilm Ltd., 2015.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Directed by Rian Johnson, Lucasfilm Ltd., 2017.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Directed by J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot Productions and Lucasfilm Ltd., 2019.
“The Sin.” The Mandalorian, created by Jon Favreau, season 1, episode 3, Disney Platform Distribution, 2019.
White, Brett. “Rebellions Are Built on Hope: Why Rogue One Matters Now More Than Ever.” Comic Book Resources, 11 November 2016, https://www.cbr.com/rebellions-are-built-on-hope-why-rogue-one-matters-now-more-than-ever/. Accessed 22 November 2021.
