John Rocha: Trump to STOP Female and Diverse leads in STAR WARS?!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Few properties have been as diverse Star Wars from Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy; though this has failed to expand the audience. On the contrary, Skeleton Crew performed even worse than The Acolyte! With Donal Trump back in office though, John Rocka worries this might mean the end for diverse leads the next four years … let’s see why, and if there could be something to that!
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#starwars #disney #kathleenkennedy
As long as Kathleen Kennedy is president of Lucasfilm, nothing will change.
If they really want to save SW, the solution couldn't be more crystal clear.
Same goes for Disney, want to save that company, get rid of Iger and all those loyal to him.
Same for Star Trek. The first step in fixing it is to boot out Alex Klutzman and his Secret Hideout.
The whole Lucasfilm company has become rotten to the core with activists. She rebuilt that company into her own image. Change the leader, nothing will change. Only an Elon Musk twitter style purge down to the janitor level will bring about a change. In that sense Trek is easier to fix, because it is not tied Kurtzman's Secret Hideout.
Which is never going to happen and there are no guarantees that she'll be replaced by someone any different, In fact it's more likely that her successor will be hand picked by her. If you want to save SW then your one and only hope (no pun intended) is the total collapse of Disney Studios and purchase by a company that, like with Skydance and Star Trek, at least recognises the potential in the brand and seeks to undo the damage done to it, and even that offers no guarantees.
She's not going to leave until she dies. Considering the lifespan of women nowadays, that will be a long time.
The creators are the toxic ones. You are absolutely correct. When someone destroys, and/or enjoys destroying, beloved characters and franchises, such destroyers are the toxic ones. Not the folks complaining about the destruction.
How is putting women and ethnic minorities into things 'destroying' them, though? If anything is destroying popular franchises, it is bad writing, pure and simple.
I agree with you about the “toxicity” of Star Wars fans, and think that the same applies to every fandom that resists changes made to their respective IPs. It’s the people changing the IPs that are toxic.
Problem is that they are over representing women in a genre' that is 80% male. The other problem is the media's over representation of "under represented groups". I watched cable TV with my mom a few weeks ago. Blacks are 12.8% of the population of the USA but 55% of the actors in the commercials I watched are black and even though Native Americans like me are 2% of the population the number of Native Americans in the commercials was 0.
That's not gonna stop KK from ruining Star Wars projects with her propaganda
Not to mention the Star Wars corporate shills (useful idiots) and fanatical fanboys keeping them alive, like a zombie
The gaslighting of Roche is simply stunning. Roche, Let’s say this SLOWLY: “Kathleen Kennedy did not invent the strong, diverse, feminine character in Star Wars.” Princess Leia and literally dozens more of diverse, decades old characters would like a word.
People get so worked up about 'bikini leia' that they forget that she throttled one of the most feared crime bosses in the galaxy to death with a chain. None of this 'force choke' nonsense.
It was up close, it was personal, it was brutal.
Let’s say this SLOWLY: “Kathleen Kennedy invented the ‘Force is female’ obligatory underweight/overweight, weak, incompetent, cowardly, ugly, expendable white male sidekick; emphasis on the kick.” Kurtzman too. That’s why SW and ST are dead, Jim. The male and female diverse OG are gone and never coming back until Disney relinquish 'Lucasfilm'.
They might as well have a pop-up Charlie Brooker like a sign language sidebar, pointing at ginger Jedi or captain-murdered-by-Shin, laughing and chuckling: “See that? That’s you that is, you f*sc*st, r*c*st Neanderthal!”
Mara Jade, Kyle Katarns girlfriend and countless others way before Ray Palpatine.
Ummmm... Kathleen Kennedy did invent the OP plot-armor no heroes journey female lead at the same time she emasculated the male leads!
Perhaps I'm in a minority, but the DEI stuff have traumatised me so much that at this point if I see a non-white-male in the lead of something from Hollywood, that's an immediate skip for me. And I'm not even white.
Also if I see any women AT ALL in any action thing, it's also an automatic skip. Multiple race people in settings that do not make sense is also an automatic skip; looking at you House of Dragons and Witcher, among many others.
You're not the only one.
I'm with you!
The diverse and female leads aren't the problem. The issue is eschewing a quality story and characters and instead building the entire premise around an actor's skin color or genitals.
People worldwide no matter the race or culture wants to see men as the leads of action & adventure media.
Star Wars is specifically a boys' franchise. Using female leads to tell stories in that universe is equivalent to having Ken as the protagonist in a Barbie story; it is not the most optimal way to please the fanbase.
@@FairPlayGaming I don't think that example quite works considering the financial success of the Barbie movie while Ken had most of the focus and praise.
@@YouTv4G You failed to see the point of my comment. Women did not show up to see Ken, regardless of how much screen time he had. If you look at toy sales, for every Ken doll sold today, there are generally 8 to 10 Barbies sold. It is a girls' brand; therefore, male characters are less desirable. The inverse is true for Star Wars. Boys are not lining up to buy Rey or Rose Tico figures, when they have the option to buy Vader, Luke etc.
It is a known fact for people who study this subject matter on an academic level that boys prefer male protagonists. If you want searchable proof, then look up the most profitable male-dominated franchises (Pokémon, MCU, LOTR, James Bond, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, etc.); the vast majority of them have male leads. When the Sequel Trilogy was released, boys had nothing to latch onto in terms of toys outside of Kylo Ren and the brand crashed, losing millions, if not billions, in potential sales.
@@FairPlayGaming That's a good point I never thought of. It's a hijacking of the franchise.
Diversity of leads is just scapegoating the shitty writing. The Last Jedi didnt suck cos Rey was the lead, it sucked cos Rian Johnson wanted to wreck Star Wars.
So, TDS really can be terminal. Good to know.
well we've known that since 2016 lmao
i wish Trump actually had the power to affect private companies to get rid of the DEI toxicity there.
People have that power by not giving them money.
He does DEI is illegal have you ever heard of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
There are laws, prohibiting discrimination...and those target every aspect of DEI
@@therovingrobin5938All the government has to do tell any company that DEI is illegal stop or pay the price
He actually does, because dei literally violates the US constitution.
How is Rocha keeping his channel alive?! He only has 36k subs...
LOL
🤣🤣🤣
I came here directly after watching a clip of the TV show RWBY (vs Ace Ops). The 4 main protagonists, 6/8 of the main team, one of the best characters ever (Neo), and the two main antagonists are all women. I do not care. The show is well done and i love every moment of it. it has NEVER been about white male leads. It has always been about race swapping somebody into the "mantle" so the company can make a quick buck while cashing in on the name recognition, and cloaking themselves behind the "Impenetrable" shield of diversity while they slowly lower the quality and produce more garbage to maximize their profits. Truthfully, anybody who HONESTLY believes that bringing back "straight white male" leads while continuing to produce garbage will fix the problem, is either a liar, or an idiot.
"Disney's diversity drive...for Star Wars, Marvel and everything else...hasn't failed because of any diversity in and of itself, but because the storytelling was compromised." (8:55) -- Andre. I agree. If the stories were good, I'm fairly sure fans would have accepted the new, diverse characters. For example, most fans liked or really liked Rogue One.
We have been enjoying diverse leads for as long as I've been alive, what changed was the writing went bad and they blamed racism, because they are racist and assume everyone else is too
👍👍👍
Sneider is a weasel, and Rocha (thank you for your service) is on the Delulu Train.
Diverse leads were never the problem. It’s that the people in charge of Star Wars are purposefully ignoring and doing the opposite of what the fans want.
Whites are diverse.
Don't bother. These f*ckwits don't have a better nature.
Rocha is detestable
A female lead would be fine, just make her an actual character and not a KK-self insert girl boss who's always right and surrounded by incompetent men.
The problem is any female lead will be seen as a girlboss. The War of the Rohirrim main character wasn’t a girlboss yet was attacked before the film even premiered.
@@bulldogsbob Hera wasn't a Girlboss...?? Fucking LMAO!!!
@@Halfort57 Yes she got her butt kicked more than once.
@ She got beaten more than once by a man in a fight.
@@bulldogsbob
Althought it wasnt an outrageous girlboss, Hera was non the less still an archytype of a Mary Sue lead... Not to mention uou have Helm Hammerhand, a man who's punches and ferocity were so legendary that his enemies compared him to a feral frost troll... But you rather focuse on her daughter, and make her an Eowen but removed everything that made Eowen a great character... Sure
There is nothing wrong with female leads. What we don't want are Mary Sues or "strong woman" leads.
Mary Sue's are literally the only thing Hollywood knows how to make nowadays
Women are not dynamic or compelling.
Yes!👏🏻
@@sardonicspartan9343 that's all Hollywood knows how to make nowadays
Anime has shown that there's nothing wrong with Mary Sues. This is especially true since the isekai genre became so prominent. The problem lies entirely in how the strong woman leads feel like they're looking down on others.
"Does this mean we're not getting a Rey movie?"
We already got three of them. They were increasingly terrible.
John Rocha is a schmuck
He cried about the last 3 star wars movies said he was done with it..
The President Trump they are so terrified of sounds freaking awesome. Can we get him after this Trump's four years are up?
The next President Trump is named Barron and he will lead us into an unprecedented era of human prosperity.
I'll run an election campaign promising everything they claim he's trying to do
@@lemond2007what the fuck?!
@@lemond2007 You spelled emperor wrong. It will be glorious
47th President Trump might possibly be the *Last President* of the United States.
Rocha was the reason I unsubbed from Collider years back. Between him and Campea I’m not sure who wins for the most unintelligent.
I don't like Trump, but that wouldn't be a bad thing. If Star Wars goes back to male leads. Chris Gore said it best. Star Wars was a boy brand for everyone turned into a girl brand by a vindictive coffee girl
A pretty accurate summary of Kennedy's legacy.
But it shouldn't have to be forced by our government to tell us how we make movies.
@@tyrannozilla don't worry that's not likely to happen
@ I'll take your word for it for now. I still believe that Trump will try to force it to an extent. After all, he wants Mel Gibson, Jon Vought, and Stallone as ambassadors to Hollywood. Now, maybe those guys will just focus on making money, but they have their own political beliefs and I wouldn't be surprised if they try to implement them into movies. Left or Right, personal politics should not overshadow storytelling.
@tyrannozilla You are spot on. The worse outcome would be Trump strong arming Disney to do this or that.
The market needs to sort this out. If government does it means the next Democrat elected will just put DEI back in and it will be worse.
The TDS is stong in Rocha
At this point if you wrok for Collider, you most have TDS, I wouldnt be surprise if that was one of the requirements.
Diversity, as stated, isn't the issue. Horrendous creative direction, political messaging and garbage storytelling is why these studios have lost so much money and fan faith.
And as it turns out, diversity is a shortcut to knowing if there is horrendous creative direction, political messaging and garbage storytelling.
I honestly believe that the 2024 election gave cover to corporations that had already decided that DIE was financial poison.
Its going to take an actor with the star power of a Ryan Gosling to have any chance of saving the SW franchise.
John Roacha has TDS.
Man up? For a nerd franchise? I’ll just take my money and go elsewhere. I don’t have to do anything as far as Marvel and Star Wars are concerned. They can toughen up with less because I know I’m not the only one thinking this way.
It turns out women can't direct Star Wars movies and TV shows.
Go figure.
Being passionate isn't toxic, attacking fans like what Disney has approved of IS TOXIC.
I don’t know if it's fair to call it TDS anymore. This is people's own foolishness on display.
What people do not understand about the agenda and those who promote it is that those who promote the agenda don't care about profit cost or Brand damage all they care about is the agenda and promoting the agenda at all costs.
Agreed. The dark money poured into died-on-arrival projects is an accepted casualty of it means ‘the message’ will be delivered. Hollywood is a huge money laundering operation anyway so they don’t care about profits. Vanity projects and agendas are the priority.
At this point, Disney is worried about SURVIVAL.
They lost way too much money.
My take, Disney cant exercise discrimination in their corporate hiring. They can make any movie they want and reap whatever consequence results. (Which they are doing now).
Unless and until Bob fires Kathy Kennedy and her brood....no fans are coming back
Is John Rocka really as simpleminded and delusional as he projects or is it an act? I find it so hard to believe that he really is as twisted/broken as he comes off… seems performative.
He’s a shill. He occupies a space leftists need to push back against the common sense arguments made by popular TH-camrs.
Ripley is always going to be one of my favorite stars in any movie. Maybe write the characters better?
Rocha isn't even correct if Disney did instantly start putting white male leads into all of their content. He fails to grasp or is in outright denial that it's a bout the content. Case in point and going back to the Disney Trilogy for Star Wars, if they had made Luke and Han the leads rather than side characters while keeping their personalities the exact same as they were written they would have been just as damaging and disrespectful of the content. Fans would never have liked that regardless if they had made them the lead or not. That holds true to any content regardless if we're talking about SW or any other franchise. Heck, they already proved that point with the reception of Wish and the open criticism they faced on the plot.
No one would care about the casting if the writing was good
I'm Scots - Irish , English and Polish , and I'm 3 shades darker than Rocha. He lives in CLOWN 🤡 WORLD 🌍.
DEI is just getting rebranding. Its not going away at all
John Rocha is the only blue checkmark that ever blocked me on Twitter. Lol
The problem isn't "female leads" or "diverse leads", it's that the stories suck.
It’s like they don’t listen to why people are upset. Or listen to what the people are saying. To them it’s blah blah blah woman blah blah activists blah blah
The first thing a cult does is isolate you to the point where all your information comes from the cult.
“They” do think that if you don’t agree with them you’re a monster. They really do.
I knew Trump was a good guy all along.
A true Return od the Jedi 😉
😕
The fact that a Ryan gosling movie is the best chance for star wars shows how dead the brand really is.
That guy must have a tinfoil hat under his cap
Right? The leftists' projection power is unparalleled in known Galaxy.
Even mighty Trump won't convince Disney to remove Kennedy from her position 😂 And without that change Star Wars is doomed.
These assumptions that we're all racist is, frankly, getting tiring. My problem with the Last Jedi wasn't because they made Rey the main character. It's because they wrote Rey so poorly the only way to make her look good was to utterly ruin Luke, sideline Finn (the really interesting character of the trilogy), and neuter Poe. Rey _could have been_ a GREAT character (like Master Satele in the Old Republic or Mara Jade in the EU). But they wrote her so inanely, she just became a character that the fanbase hates because they got her so wrong and she fell so far short of how great she could have (should have) been.
Ahsoka _should have been_ a show that Star Wars fans were over the moon about. Rosario Dawson is a good actress; Ahsoka is an amazing character. And the TV series was given the most bland and confused scripts. They could have been GREAT. The villain was a strong villain - and then Thrawn was behind him. The confrontation between our heroes and the villains _should have been_ LEGENDARY. And they were lame not because they featured "diverse" characters, but because the WRITING sucked.
And the writing sucked because of the DEI agenda BEHIND the camera - not in front of it. It was handing the keys to the Star Wars kingdom to writers hired because they checked DEI boxes, not because they had skill. It was because they wanted to make their stories POLITICAL STATEMENTS about racism and sexism. It was bad because their agenda was how the only way to make heroes GIRLS could look up to (because a girl can't identify with or look up to a male hero) was by making the girls all OP and the boys into bland, confused caricatures who always needed a strong female character to save their butts. Girls shouldn't be expected to look up to male heroes, but boys should should be just fine with and looking up to female heroes. (I guess boys are just less sexist than girls?)
Big assumption that the audience will come back no matter who you put in as a lead be it male, female, black, white, brown, blue or orange.
"Star Wars fans are notoriously toxic." So don't be a Star Wars fan. Never again. Put it behind you. No more second chances for Star Wars and Kathleen Kennedy.
Honestly, the minute people start calling fans, toxic, or projecting their divisive nonsense. I think it’s best to tune out and definitely not pay for whatever it is there desiccating
“Star Wars fans are quite toxic…” There are no more Star Wars fans, anymore.
The 'modern audience' are their fans now.
If only Trump had the power to fire Kathleen Kennedy. If only.
A president shouldn’t pick who gets fired or hired in private companies.
I don’t understand why making stuff for the majority is so bad. Niche stuff exists for a reason.
Star wars is dead, the fans have moved on.
Sorry, but some of us are past caring what happens with Star Wars. It would take a change of humongous proportions to get me interested again, including an interesting storyline.
The movie wasn't going to be made anyway so blame Trump, toxic fans, republican voters, the usual suspects.
Too many women in a series make it more like a novela.
Tell me Jon R refuses to get the point without telling me!
@2:25 These kinds of people need to realize there are genres of movies that are meant for that type of lecturing. You can't just put "the message" in everything and expect success. Even women who are now the main target audience for Star Wars are not watching.
So not only is Trump making America 🇺🇸 Great Again, but also a galaxy far far away?!? Jeez John! I already voted for him you don’t need to sell me on him further.
He thinks Trump is Stalin, who had a say in everything. Rocha is top down, and thus he thinks Trump is top down too.
I mean, this is the same John Rocha that said it would be fun to delete homeless people. Great guy. 🤦♂️
if kennedy believe that ken will save star wars she is delutional
Please do...in fact, Trump needs to go to Lucas film and fire Kathleen Kennedy himself!
If E.A hadn’t been infested by DEI it would have been great to let Mass Effect replace Star wars as the go to space story for films
As I said a million times , I watch animes with strong female characters since 1970.
And they were well writen on fun shows .
Disney not only is decades late , but they are making a very poor job promoting those women , on very bad shows.
i would like to see trump get rid of the DEI in the films if they dont change they will keep failing
The market needs to do this, not the Federal Government. If T can change it then so can the next administration.
And of course you know this man is drive more by ideology than common sense. Diversity was never an issue in Lucasfilms, what is and always has been ever since Disney bought it, was the writing. We reach a point that nobody wants to see Star Wars, not even this man, and he still says is the problem of the audience and not the people in charge.
“that beating did wonders” was hilarious 😂
Hey, Mr. Rocha, since all of us non-libs are just so threatened by strong females, can you explain to me the popularity of Ellen Ripley, Sarah Conner, and (since you were talking Star Wars) Princess Leia? Yeah....I didn't think so.
I think the message is received by the entertainment industry, that DEI is not profitable and needs to go. I don’t expect a marked change in the output for most if not the majority of Trumps second term. I do suspect that chances are Vance will be our next president making America first not just the next four years but the next 12. So by 2029/2030 we’ll have some return to more popular entertainment and possibly not central to Hollywood California.
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
I don't care if it is true or not. Politicians should not be sticking their noses into our films whatever their affiliation.
Oh, are we really still gonna do that?
Play the pretend game.
Because Disney didn't seem to mind when they have to remove their propaganda for both China and Saudi Arabia all these years.
For once in your life, get real.
That I agree with... Not matter how is charge, whenever the government gets in, it will blow up.
Yes! If you want T to strong-arm corporations you are giving the next president you don’t agree with the right to do it as well.
If you could write a great story that was woke, I wouldn’t care.
But the problem is it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a woke story great. All of the contrivances and idiotic logic breaking decisions make for HORRIBLE stories.
Rocha can’t understand that it’s not the immutable characteristics of the actors we are against. If the story was good we’d be onboard. It’s the stupidity of the story being written by dimwitted virtue signaling ideologues that RUINS EVERYTHING.
Woke is not entertaining.
Woke does not understand character arcs or story structure, or romance, or comedy, or action, or drama, or suspense, or thrills. These are fundamental elements to a good story.
At its core “Braking Bad” is practically communist propaganda, but it is so entertaining no one notices.
I will be satiated only when Disney is bankrupt and sold off
John Rocha and the like will never ever understand the problem because they refuse to actually listen.
The biggest problem with DEI, the corporations didn't create any original ideas, just changing history and characters, to fit DEI, for all of the old IP's
I recently read through almost all of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey mouser heroic fantasy stories, all published between 1936 and 1971.
And you know the odd thing? Lots of great, interesting female characters. True only a couple of warriors (since you know in reality not many women go in for physical combat), but also lots of thieves, sorceresses, con artists and even slave girls who go on interesting arcs and end up freeing themselves with the heroes help.
As for "people of colour", The grey mouser himself is described as "swarthy", and "dark faced", since he comes from a southern city.
We never needed "diversity", because it was there already, we just needed good stories set in interesting locations and worlds, and the diversity would happen of itself.
These days, I don't read/watch anything published after 2017 without a strong recommendation, and that goes double if I think it's pushing the "diversity" narrative.
Diversity was organic and believable in the 20th century.
(And Fritz was a brilliant writer sadly forgotten.)
I wonder how Animat (Mat Brunet) from Electric Dragon 505 is doing with Trump in office, and this story with Star Wars dropping Diversity with its lead now. He’s probably losing his mind!😅
Even his own co-host is laughing at him...
You know why he's saying all that right? Because that's what the dems would do if the shoe were on the other foot.
Imagine looking for comic book movie news and finding this 😂
John Rocha seems like an idiot. Bringing Trump into it is just more idiocy. I don't think Trump is even a Star Wars fan. Star Wars is played out, they've burned their audience in favor of some imaginary audience.
i imagine Bob Iger must be salty AF at what Elon has achieved in such a short amount of time politically after he went all out on trying to destroy Elon. because a while back it was said that Bob was trying to use DEI to transition into politics full time. i know its not too late and his image has not been desecrated to a point beyond presidential consideration but it can always get worse.
Trump should stay out of this, let it die alone and unloved.
Yes! If the government removes it, the government can put it in.
its not about female leads. its about the type of lead. a crappy male lead is still a crappy male lead, same goes for female leads
STAR WARS is beyond repair.
As Awesome as Trump is...I doubt even he could make Star Wars great again.
Attention Hollywood and pundits: IT'S NOT THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE FILMMAKERS, IT'S THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT!!!!
I would like to watch a video about Andrai and Tom
Delete Disney Canon. Restore the original EU. Fire KK, Dave Filoni, and most of the staff at Lucas Film.
The real reason is Trump ending DEI in government hiring set a new tone and made it more acceptable for corporations to dump DEI (which did nothing for their business). They were afraid to earlier. The social stigma has been removed, or at least deflected, as Trump is taking all the heat. That's leadership.
I couldn't sit through an entire episode of that guys TDS, so thank you for plucking out the highlights for us so we don't have to.
I think the fact that most of Disney's outings flopped would have more to do with them trying more "white leads" than Trump staging a coup on Disney
Funny how the fanbase wasn’t toxic until Disney bought it.
The audience didn’t change.
Star Wars changed.
And not for the better.
Rocha has always been a race grifter
I would actually recomand "The Cine Files" Podcast.
It is an interesting discussion about films John Rocha cohosts with Steve Morris. The Die Hard and Lethal Weapon episodes where very insightful about the making of these films.
Rocha and Campea. The ultimate studio schills.