The Star Wars YouTube Channel is Getting Push Back From Fed-up Fans

File this article as partly opinion, even though I’m trying to be as unbiased as I can be.

Disney and Lucasfilm have a ‘Star Wars’ problem and it’s getting bigger.

Before the sequel trilogy there had always been fan disagreements and discussions about various elements of the ‘Star Wars’ cannon or universe, but that has exploded in the last few years with the sequel trilogy and arguable arbitrary social media “guidelines.”  

It’s recently come to a head as actress Gina Carano was fired from the “Star Wars: The Mandalorian” show, for her social media posts. Many people have pointed out that the guidelines and rubric for what is or is not acceptable by those associated with Lucasfilm seems to be more of a sliding scale depending on who you are or what political leanings you have. Objectively there do seem to be different rules for different people.

Most of the issues involving Disney ‘Star Wars’ can be tracked back to “The Last Jedi,” social media behavior by cast, crew, and employees of Lucasfilm, and the media friendly to Disney.

Disney and Lucasfilm have seemed to allow their people or the media to push a narrative that paints people who disagree or don’t like their products, as -ists or -phobes. There was a spectrum of reasons people didn’t like choices or directions taken with ‘Star Wars’ and while being against diversity or minorities does happen, it was a very, small amount of people who actually felt that way. Not in the numbers that Lucasfilm and the media report.

Many fans were tired of being labeled in offensive and dismissive ways, which perpetuated the animosity. Then a bright spot appeared with “The Mandalorian” on Disney+. Lucasfilm and Disney were winning fans back. Fans across the world cheered when Luke Skywalker appeared.

With that excitement came pushback from people associated with the Lucasfilm Story Group. And it really doesn’t seem coincidental that as the Disney+ ‘Star Wars’ started to create more unity Lucasfilm would double down on their new “High Republic” initiative, and continue their sliding scale of “acceptable” behavior, causing more division.

The issue is easy to solve, just make some guidelines and make them the same for everyone. But I digress…

Now the fans that were starting to return have once again pushed back. This time they are hitting Lucasfilm on their ‘Star Wars’ YouTube channel with a downvoting and comment campaign.

Some seem to be downvoted much higher than others.

Some are alleging that Lucasfilm is removing downvotes and comments.

Of course this will all likely be met with Lucasfilm dismissing it all as “harassment” by “toxic” fans, like they tend to do. I think they need to recognize they have a real problem with the way they’ve been viewed and they are going to need to take some steps regarding social media, social commentary, as well as clear cut social guidelines and accountability.
Because if they had these things in place, it likely would not have escalated like it has.

But that’s my opinion.