It may be set a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but there's been an issue plaguing the Star Wars franchise that isn't too far from home: representation.
In the latest handful of films, the series has come lightyears in featuring women and actors of colour in prominent roles, with , making her debut in "The Last Jedi".
Like "Rogue One", which starred Felicity Jones, "Last Jedi" has a strong push for female characters with the introduction of Laura Dern's role as Vice Admiral Holdo alongside Carrie Fisher's General Leia Organa and Daisy Ridley's Rey. The film is even being hailed "".
Despite the amazing work in representation, there's still one corner of the universe the franchise has yet to shine a lightsaber on.
, "The Last Jedi" writer and director Rian Johnson was quizzed about the lack of LGBT+ characters in the film.
"Sexuality, in general, is not something that's front of mind in any of these movies," Johnson told BuzzFeed, confirming that part of the reason there was no queer relationships featured was due to the fact that a romantic subplot wasn't central to "The Last Jedi".
Since "The Force Awakens" in 2015, fans have , played by John Boyega and Oscar Issac respectively.
as a way for audiences to see themselves in a hero.
As an actor, for me, I'm very open to those possible storylines and I don't think it needs to be nailed down in any kind of traditional way.
The same discussion orbited Laura Dern's character who, in one of the Star Wars novels, .
'A pair of pretty dark eyes.' Then Amilyn thought about that for a moment. 'Or more than a pair, if you're into Grans. Or Aqualish, or Talz. Or even - ' 'That's all right!' Leia said through laughter. 'It's just humanoid males for me.' 'Really? That feels so limiting.' 'Thank goodness it's a big galaxy.'
Johnson wasn't ruling out LGBT+ characters in the future saying, "I think there could be a place for in this universe, as we see these movies reflect more and more the way the world actually looks like right now, today".
"You see that in gender representation, people of colour. As we're doing that, we're doing that, period. I think [LGBT representation] is one element that we haven't done yet that we need to do."
Similarly, the director of the next chapter, J.J. Abrams also said the future could include prominent LGBT+ characters.
Last year Abrams was quoted as saying, "To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world".
