Disney came under fire nearly a decade ago after fans noticed something peculiar about its Star Wars marketing campaign. British actor John Boyega, who played the character Finn in The Force Awakens, was featured in diminished proportions on Chinese posters.
“Finn (who happens to be black) and Chewbacca (happens to be Wookiee) get shafted in China,” tweeted Ray Kwong, a Hong Kong-based political commentator.
It wasn’t the first time Disney had been accused of removing or minimizing black actors from posters in other countries. CNN noted Disney had also sidelined Twelve Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor in overseas promotional campaigns in 2013. And then there was the Chinese poster of 2018’s Black Panther, which neglected to show a single person of color (including the star Chadwick Boseman), a sharp contrast to the U.S. version.
“For a company that prizes inclusivity, Disney’s focus on erasing or minimizing people of certain races or ethnic backgrounds to appease China is well documented,” Zachary Faria noted in the Washington Examiner in 2021.
Well, Disney is at it again.
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