Simon Pegg has already predicted that his comments about Star Wars fandom being ‘toxic’ would be controversial. It seems that his prediction was right on the spot. Simon Pegg, the veteran member of Star Wars, became a social media target after declaring the Star Wars fans as the most toxic at the moment. cbr.com has quoted many words from his interview.
The veteran star appeared on SiriusXM’s “Faction Talk” this Monday. The actor was answering questions about the frenchises he has worked for, including Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Star Trek. At one point, he was supposed to address the question that which plans are the most challenging to please. Pegg went straight to the core of the matter without any hesitation. He said, “To be honest, and as someone who was kind of, you know, kicked off about the prequels when they came out, the Star Wars fan base really seems to be the most, kind of, toxic at the moment.” He predicted the outcome of his comment, “I’m probably going to be very controversial to say that.”
CBR has quoted, “All criticism, constructive or otherwise, has been labeled toxic to hand wave away all criticism of the product,” a commenter elaborated. “Don’t like The Last Jedi? Think Rose Tico is a bad character? You must be a racist toxic fan, and your opinion isn’t worth listening to.”
As references on “Faction Talk,” Simon repetitively targeted the Star Wars prequels and Jar Jar Binks in Spaced, his sitcom show. However, Pegg had already apologized for it in 2018, when he realized that Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar, was almost driven to suicide due to the overwhelmingly negative response to his character. Pegg elaborated in SiriusXM that he feels terrible for being part of the negative criticism.
Disney revived Star Wars when it bought LucasFilm in 2012. Since then, the online community has been marring the franchise by harassing its female and minority cast. The most recent incident is when people trolled Inquisitor Reva Sevander’s actor Moses Ingram. The character played a significant role in Obi-Wan Kenobi. People targeted John Boyega with a similar detestation, literally from the moment the teaser of Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrived in 2014. Another example is when Kelly Marie Tran had to delete her Instagram posts and completely abandon social media afterward due to online harassment. She played Rose Tico in The Last Jedi.
Pegg is not only the veteran actor of Star Wars but has played Mr. Scott in the rebooted Star Trek films. So, knowing both sides, he drew a stark contrast between the fandom of Star Wars and Star Trek.
“I find that Star Trek fans have always been very, very inclusive,” he expressed his thoughts on SiriusXM. “You know, Star Trek is about diversity. It has been since 1966; it always was. There’s no sort of, like, ‘Oh, you’re suddenly being woke now.’ Star Trek was woke from the beginning. You had a Japanese navigator just after the Second World War. There was a Black woman on the deck in a position of authority. This is massively progressive. Star Wars, suddenly there’s a little more diversity, and everyone’s kicking off about it, and it’s really sad, you know.”
It is up to the audience and the critics now how they deal with his controversial but explicit comments.
