To quote Yoda: “Beware of the dark side. Anger. Fear. Aggression. The dark side of the internet are they. Easily they flow.”
Especially for Star Wars “fans,” who seemed to have missed the whole point of the saga.
On Wednesday, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has called out the “manbabies” whose harassment has reportedly led to actress Kelly Marie Tran deleting all of her posts on Instagram.
Tran, who played Rose in The Last Jedi, is the first Asian American actress to win a prominent role in any Star Wars film. She has also become the target of racist and misogynistic ire from “fans” who did not like the character and film.
After Tran recently removed all her photos from her social media accounts, many assumed it was done in response to months of trolling. Thus far, Tran has offered no explanation, but a quick look at her Instagram account reveals that it is devoid of anything other than a line in her bio: “Afraid, but doing it anyway.”
On Tuesday, Johnson seemed to reference the news on Twitter, mentioning how “on social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall.” According to Johnson, “real” Star Wars fans interact with humour, love and respect even when they disagree.
Later, he directly addressed the situation and hateful “fans” as well as those who responded to his initial tweets.
“You know the difference between not liking a movie and hatefully harassing a woman so bad she has to get off social media,” Johnson tweeted. “And you know which of those two we’re talking about here.”
Mark Hamill also made his feelings clear that he supported Tran by tweeting a photo he took with the actress captioned “what’s not to love?” and insisting the harassers need to “get a life.”
While real fans and Tran’s fellow Star Wars family have shown her support, some say that is not enough and are calling on Disney to make an official statement condemning this sort of harassment.
The Times has reached out to Disney for comment.
