Chicago Typewriter creator Brandon Fiadino recently reacted to Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor’s condemnation of Star Wars fans and the recent controversy surrounding actress Moses Ingram as a “marketing op by Disney.”
Actress Moses Ingram started the controversy when she spoke with The Independent revealing that Lucasfilm had instructed her to expect “racist online abuse.”
She told the British outlet, ““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.’”
She also noted that Deborah Chow and others at Lucasfilm were “putting the proper systems in place so I feel safe as we do the work.”
“Of course there are always pockets of hate,” she added. “But I have no problem with the block button.”
Ingram then made the absurd claim that “Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before.”
She added, “To me, it’s long overdue. If you’ve got talking droids and aliens, but no people of color, 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.”
RELATED: Obi-Wan Kenobi Actress Moses Ingram Shares Screenshots Of “Abuse” She’s Received
A little over a week after making these comments to The Independent, Ingram claimed she was receiving hundreds of direct messages via Instagram of abuse albeit she only shared four as well as a thumbnail from YouTube referencing a South Park film. Of the four DMs she shared only one of them qualified as abuse.
Even more suspect was that Ingram posted the screenshots of the DMs in the middle of the night, timing it perfectly so media outlets would pick it up the next morning that just happened to be the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
The first screenshot she shared read, “You’re days are numbered.”
Next she shared one where a user wrote, “You are not the first n**** in starwarss fool.”
The third read, “You suck loser. You’re a diversity hire and you won’t be loved or remembered for this acting role.”
The fourth screenshot was a picture of YouTuber Mecharandom42’s thumbnail for her video covering Ingram’s comments to The Independent.
The fifth and final one is the only that shows actual abuse. It reads, “‘AYO KENOBI YOU AINT FINNA RUN FOREVER WHITE BOY’ ‘GET BACK HERE’ – Third Sister, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You have now been converted into the Saint George of Floydium of Star Wars, are you happy. How the f*** does an alien know eubonics.”
Accompanying these images, Ingram shared a video message. She began, “Long story short. There are hundreds of those. Hundreds. And I also see those of you out there who put on a cape for me. And that really does mean the world to me because there is nothing anybody can do about this.”
“There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” she reiterated. “So I question what my purpose is in even being here in front of you saying this is happening. I don’t really know. I don’t really know. ”
Ingram continued, “But I think the thing that bothers me is that like sort of this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself which no one has told me, but this feeling of like, ‘I just got to shut up and take it.’ You know I just got to grin and bear it. And I’m not built like that.”
“So I really just wanted to come on, I think, and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places that I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird,” she concluded.
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In response to this, the official Star Wars account reacted posting to Twitter, “We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist.”
They added, “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
McGregor would also respond via a car video saying, “This weekend, Star Wars fans made Obi-Wan Kenobi the most watched Disney Plus original series premiere of all time. And for that I would say a big thank you. And it just goes to show what this family can do when we all pool together.”
He then addressed Ingram’s Instagram posts, “However, it seems that some of the fanbase from this influential fanbase have decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous, racist DMs, and I heard some of them this morning and it just broke my heart.”
“Moses is a brilliant actor, she’s a brilliant woman, and she’s absolutely amazing in this series. She brings so much to this series, she brings so much to this franchise, and it just sickened me to my stomach to hear this had been happening,” he continued.
“I just want to say, as the leading actor in the series, as the Executive Producer on the series, that we stand with Moses. We love Moses. And if you’re sending her bullying messages, you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind. There’s no place for racism in this world. And I totally stand with Moses,” he concluded.
A personal message from Ewan McGregor. pic.twitter.com/rJSDmj663K
— Star Wars (@starwars) June 1, 2022
In response Fiadino, the creator of Chicago Typewriter, wrote on Twitter, “Where was Ewan McGregor’s truckrant video when Gina Carano was getting harassed on the internet? Nowhere. Because the current outrage is all a marketing op by Disney.”
Fiadino’s fellow novelist and comic book creator Jon Del Arroz, now a contributor at Bounding Into Comics, previously claimed that calling their own fans racist was a marketing strategy for Disney and Lucasfilm while promoting their Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative.
He explained, “This is just a marketing gimmick for Disney at the end of the day because there is no talk about The High Republic that is positive. Nobody is interested in the comics. Nobody is interested in the books. Nobody is interested in the show discussing the comics and books. And so they have to try to make some sort of cause about it in order to get people interested. It’s a tired tactic at this point.”
What do you make of Fiadino’s claim that the outrage and controversy surrounding Obi-Wan Kenobi actress Moses Ingram is a marketing op?
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