John Boyega, who plays Storm trooper Finn in latest release of Star Wars, decided to call out fan-favorite Game of Thrones as well as The Lord of the Rings for not having many black actors.
He apparently forgot the entire Dothraki horde and many many others that you see throughout the series which makes me wonder if he’s even bothered seeing the series AT ALL.
Nevermind, I guess, the fact that other Tolkien as well as GRRM both take inspiration from historical events that happened in the United Kingdom to prepare much of their written material. And for Game of Thrones, the books are obviously a lot more detailed than the television show, and that includes his complaint.
As reported by EW.com:
Star Wars actor John Boyega is calling out fantasy favorites Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings for a lack of diversity.
“There are no black people on Game of Thrones. You don’t see one black person in Lord of the Rings,” Boyega said in a recent interview with GQ. “I ain’t paying money to always see one type of person on-screen. Because you see different people from different backgrounds, different cultures, every day. Even if you’re a racist, you have to live with that. We can ruffle up some feathers.”
Boyega previously commented on diversity in pop culture after the first teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out and opened with him taking his Stormtrooper helmet off. Some fans of the franchise protested the casting choice, and Boyega responded by calling these reactions “unnecessary” and told detractors to “get used to it.”
“I’m in the movie, what are you going to do about it?” he told V Magazine at the time. “You either enjoy it or you don’t. I’m not saying get used to the future, but what is already happening. People of color and women are increasingly being shown on-screen. For things to be whitewashed just doesn’t make sense.”