10 queerest 'Star Wars' moments
06/14/24
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Disney+; LucasFilm
Star WarsStar Wars has been around since the ‘70s, only gaining in popularity in recent years and inspiring countless movies, television series, novels, and comics. But despite its ubiquitousness in pop culture, queer representation has been few and far between.
Lucky for die-hard Star Wars fans, that has started to change, and every year, we are getting more of the LGBTQ+ representation we’ve been craving.
Between, The Acolyte gifting us lesbian space witches, the novels and comics coming through with new queer characters, and Andor giving us casual queer rep, we’re loving where the franchise is headed. Could there be more visibly queer characters and more queer love stories (we’re looking at you PoeFinn)? Of course! But we’re excited by the trajectory and can’t wait to see how they make Star Wars even more gay in the future!
Was Darth Vader an ally before he fully turned to the dark side?! The Star Wars novel Queen's Hope introduces a trans clone trooper named Sister. When she expresses concern about how the Jedi will treat her, Anakin responds by saying, "The Jedi are all about transcending things. I don't think we can complain if you've transcended gender."
Back in 2022, a new young adult Star Wars book titled Padawan was released, and fans were immediately excited because the novel seemed to indicate that beloved Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi is bisexual!
In Padawan, a young Obi-Wan has a conversation about kissing and romantic relationships with another teen before thinking, "But he couldn't imagine just … kissing any of them. Maybe he didn't want to be with any of them but rather to be more like each of them. Or maybe he wanted to kiss all of them." Meeting someone when you're young and being unsure if you want to be them or be with them is such a relatable queer experience.
Andor gifted us with two badass and emotionally vulnerable lesbian characters! Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) and Cinta Kaz (Varada Sethu) are part of the rebel cell Andor becomes embedded with, and while the show doesn't make a big deal about it, one of the other characters lets Andor know that the women are a couple when it looks like he may be interested in Cinta.
Finn and Poe have so much on-screen chemistry in the sequel trilogy that it's wild that they aren't canonically queer and boyfriends. Even actors Oscar Isaac and John Boyega say they would have been happy if more had happened between their characters. "But if they would've been boyfriends, that would have been fun," Isaac told Variety.
#FinnPoe deserves a love story (and a kiss!), and we'll take no arguments!
In the animated series Star Wars Resistance, Orka and Flix work together in the Office of Acquisitions they own together on board the spaceship Colossus, but it turns out the adorable duo don't just work together; they are also life partners. We know they're animated, but we feel seen!
Lando Calrissian has oozed sexuality in every iteration, so while not everyone loved Solo: A Star Wars Story, the film did give us a pansexual Lando Calrissian, and for that, we'll be forever grateful. "There's a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee's [portrayal of Lando's] sexuality," co-writer Jonathan Kasdan told the Huffington Post. "I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it's time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of."
You may know her best for playing a ripped lesbian in Love Lies Bleeding, but real ones remember her as Imperial communications officer Elia Kane in the second and the third seasons of The Mandalorian. No one can convince us that this character is straight!
Although Amilyn Holdo wasn't explicitly queer when Laura Dern played her in The Last Jedi, the new novel Leia: Princess of Alderaan makes her canonically bisexual. While it would have been nice to have that happen in the film, we love anytime there is more queer representation.