Lucasfilm announced on Tuesday that the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX, which saw the departure of director Colin Trevorrow last week, found a new-ish director in JJ Abrams. Abrams, who wrote and directed 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will do the same for the ninth chapter of the saga, with Argo writer Chris Terrio helping him with the story.
In light of the news, many fans on Twitter have taken to digging up an interview from The Daily Beast last year where he addressed the possibility of openly LGBT characters in Star Wars:
“When I talk about inclusivity it’s not excluding gay characters. It’s about inclusivity...To me, the fun of Star Wars is the glory of possibility. So it seems insanely narrow-minded and counterintuitive to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world.”
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With Abrams back on for Episode IX, the hope for many fans is that this means explicitly queer characters will be in the film, or previously existing characters will have their queerness confirmed in the film. The rise of LGBT characters in media has grown significantly in the years between Star Wars’ post-prequels dormant period and its recent resurgence. With it being the massive media juggernaut that it is and having such a large universe with a plethora of aliens, it was always very backward (but also a product of its time) that there wasn’t a character who was confirmed to be queer or transgender, and not declared as such by the fandom.
Through fans, head canons like bisexual Luke Skywalker and trans woman Boba Fett took shape, even when the material itself didn’t really have any evidence to support or dispute these desires. Like so many other properties, those in charge at Lucasfilm have given very vague indications that queer characters exist in the universe without being too concrete, which is how you end up with Rogue One’s Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe being determined by fans to be a couple. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you end up with a situation like this year’s Beauty and the Beast where a small “gay moment” gets blown wildly out of proportion.
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Which brings us to where the fairly recent call for queer ships in Star Wars began. With Force Awakens two years ago, it seemed like that was going to change, or at the very least, Lucasfilm was testing the waters and gauging fan reactions. After seeing the movie, pretty much everyone walked away from it believing that John Boyega’s Finn and Oscar Issac’s Poe Dameron would be the main romance for the New Trilogy. Fans instantly recognized the chemistry between the two actors and how their relationship fit in with romance tropes in movies -- Poe being the damsel in distress and giving Finn his name, “Keep my jacket,” the hug, the lip biting -- and responded accordingly.
FinnPoe is easily the most prolific ship (relationship, not space ship) in the fandom. Search Tumblr, and there’s tons of art and text posts for it; head to Archive of Our Own and be struck in awe by the scenarios fanfic writers have put the two in. Even Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson gave an indication, however currently vague it is, that the relationship between Finn and Dameron could be something more back in January 2016 with fan art and the cryptic timestamp of 33:47, which fans have taken to possibly mean something between Finn and Poe will happen in The Last Jedi.
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The media rollout has yet to occur for The Last Jedi, but when it does, the pairing of Finn and Poe is certainly going to be one of the big talking points. No matter the quality of the film, fans are also going to judge the film based on how many FinnPoe moments it has, both whatever happens in 33:47 and whenever the two of them are on screen together. In previous Star Wars trilogies, the second installment is when the romance comes fully into play -- Anakin and Padme marrying; “I love you/I know.” If we’re sticking with tradition here, The Last Jedi should have a moment that brings the romance out in full force. Whether that’s between Finn and Poe or someone else is up for debate, but everyone at Lucasfilm is clearly aware of the pairing and what it means for a lot of their fanbase. Should there be actual progress on their relationship in Last Jedi, the typically cryptic answers that we when it comes to queer ships in big movies may be best here so as not to spoil the surprise.
Abrams may have been the one to say the words, but everyone at Lucasfilm needs to take his words to heart. If Star Wars is going to continue to be relevant, and all signs are pointing to it never going away ever again, they need to read the room and get with the times. LGBT characters and relationships are largely what drive a fandom these days like a weird form of currency. In some cases, they’re the only reason something is still around, even when the thing in question goes out of its way to say the queer ship won’t happen. (Here’s looking at you, Sherlock.)
Even if it’s not Finn and Poe specifically, a queer ship in Star Wars definitely needs to happen. It’ll expand the universe and perspectives offered, there’s no perfectly valid explanation why it can’t happen in a world with four-armed aliens and telekinetic children, and it’s just long overdue in general. Ships like these matter to queer people more than ever, and it would assuredly incentivize people to see the film more if they feel represented.
Abrams is in a perfect position to make that happen in Episode IX should The Last Jedi fail to deliver on the expectations that fans have for queer ships, or expand it further if it does. He’s the one who began the new trilogy, and he should be the one to close it out... with some smooches between two people of the same gender.