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Credit: LucasfilmThe Acolyte is currently weathering massive criticism from a very vocal section of the Star Wars fan base who does not appreciate the show’s “woke” politics, but now it faces an even worse backlash from progressives.
‘Star Wars’: “It’s ‘Frozen’ Meets ‘Kill Bill'”
Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has been more prominent than the average Lucasfilm employee in the run-up to the release of her series, and for good reason. Headland has described the Star Wars project as a lifelong dream come true and is particularly notable for being the first woman and openly queer person to create a Disney+ series set in a galaxy far, far away. She said:
“I essentially cold-called Lucasfilm and, after a lot of conversations, found myself pitching a show — utterly elated, my ultimate career goal, the culmination of my fandom. At the same time, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. There is so much pressure. It’s extreme. I had never done anything this big before.”
Leslye Headland and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy have been aggressively pushing the narrative that The Acolyte is a uniquely progressive Star Wars series, starring a cast of mostly people of color and female leads and not requiring deep-cut knowledge to enjoy.
Headland highlighted the series’ supposedly inclusive nature, saying, “You could definitely watch this series without knowing anything about Star Wars, but if you are a Star Wars fan, you will notice all of the things that we’ve put in there.” She also compared it to the Disney Frozen series of films and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, so she’s really been throwing a lot of descriptions out there.
Related: New ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Series Announced as ‘The Acolyte’ Burns Money
Kennedy (a controversial figure at the best of times to fandom) has gone even further, anticipating the backlash from the “male-dominated” fanbase and how it would react to a female-created and -led series, saying:
“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
Despite the show’s creator and the studio’s president’s vocal commitment to female representation and defense against gender-based backlash, it appears the support stops when it comes to the almighty dollar.
Disney Pay Disparities, Everywhere
In recent years, The Walt Disney Company, which owns Lucasfilm (in addition to Marvel Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and much more), has come under intense fire for supporting progressive causes with one hand and allegedly engaging in gender-based pay discrimination with another. While Disney has been called the “most woke liberal company” in the country, that does not appear to be supported by its own internal financial policies.
Disney is currently facing a class-action lawsuit from approximately 9,000 female Disney employees, the largest ever certified under California’s Equal Pay Act, which prevents gender-based pay discrimination. It is a milestone in gender pay equality, with attorney Lori Andrus saying, “Disney has been gaslighting these women for four years. They love their jobs. They love the brand. But they want to be respected and treated the way they should be in the workplace.”
But it doesn’t end there. While that class-action lawsuit applies specifically to California, financial disclosures from U.K. Pinewood Studios reveal that female Disney employees working for the upcoming live-action Snow White remake starring Rachel Zegler are also systemically paid less than their male coworkers.
According to a Forbes report, “[I]n April 2022, women’s average hourly pay [for Snow White] was 11.8% lower than men’s. Likewise, taking the middle number when hourly pay was ranked from highest to lowest shows that women got 8.5% less than men…just 34% of them were female, so women weren’t widely represented overall or in the upper pay segments.”
Related: ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Trilogy Status Eradicated as Classic Character Officially Recast by Lucasfilm
That is not great optics for a film that stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot have presented as a “progressive” and feminist-themed take on the Snow White story. Now, in a shockingly similar manner, it turns out that The Acolyte has the exact same problem. In fact, it is even worse.
The Acolyte was shot at the U.K.’s Shinfield Studios, which requires Disney to file financial disclosures revealing pay information for its employees. Despite the near-constant talk of gender representation by Headland and Kennedy, it turns out that the Star Wars series employs a minority of women and that their pay is nearly 20% less than their male counterparts. Forbes says:
“[J]ust 30% of the 695 employees were female and across the entire workforce, women’s average hourly pay was 19.4% lower than men’s.”
“[T]he average hourly pay of the women who worked on The Acolyte was 19.4% less than men received but it was also 13.5% lower when taking the middle number if hourly pay is ranked from highest to lowest. What’s more, although men outnumber women in the bottom and two middle hourly pay bands, 53% of the employees in the highest hourly pay band were also male.”
At some point, Disney and Lucasfilm will have to decide whether they can realistically continue to present themselves (and their shows) as paragons of progressive storytelling while systemically paying women less at Disneyland, Snow White, and Star Wars. The numbers aren’t looking particularly “woke.”
The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Dafne Keen, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss star. New episodes stream on Disney+ on Tuesdays 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET.
Do you think Disney is hypocritical for paying women less while also calling itself progressive? Sound off with opinions below!