This isn’t the first time a Disney+ remake has been the subject of racist trolling and abuse. In 2019, the Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey was targeted with the same type of racist attacks after being cast as Ariel in the Disney remake of cartoon classic.

Again, in a tale that is becoming wearingly familiar, South London’s own John Boyega (who plays the defecting Stormtrooper Finn in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker) was subject to racist abuse when he joined the Star Wars world.

In an interview with British GQ, Boyega criticised Disney for writing Black characters who lacked the nuance afforded to white characters. He said: “Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver… You knew what to do with these other people but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. 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.”

Boyega was also subject to vicious online racist attacks when the casting for 2015’s The Force Awakens was announced and again later on. “Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, ‘Black this and black that and you shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper’”, Bogeya told GQ.

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