De-Sexifying Star Wars
De-Sexifying Star Wars
The Book of Boba Fett & the Importance of Sex Appeal in Fiction
Episode 4 of The Book of Boba Fett aired yesterday on Disney+ and I’ve noticed a troubling trend in Star Wars since Disney acquired it.
No one has sex anymore.
Now, I don’t mean on-screen. Star Wars has always been family-friendly. But in the original trilogy and prequels, the characters were sexy and, once safely offscreen, would definitely be having sex. And as an audience member, that was good to know.
Now I find myself getting increasingly annoyed at how thoroughly de-sexed the new show has made Boba Fett. This is the ultimate bad boy, the kind of anti-hero chicks swoon for. He fights, he shoots, but he knows right from wrong and he’s never too busy to give a compliment to the slave girls.
Or at least… that’s how he used to be.
In Season 2 of The Mandalorian, Boba Fett made his triumphant return from his seeming death and did not disappoint.
The savage beating he laid down on the stormtroopers and his take-no-crap demeanor while demanding his father’s armor back from Mando were exactly in line with everything we knew about Boba Fett. Everything that makes a girl’s heart go pitter-pat.
So when he got his own show, we waited with bated breath to see how the former bounty hunter would rain down badassery on Tattoine.
Instead… we got Dances with Tusken Raiders. And when he emerged from the Sarlac pit, it seemed he left something behind. His sex drive, for one.
What was the point of his three short scenes with casino maven Garsa (played by the glorious Jennifer Beals)? They were entirely wasted! You’re gonna tell me he can look at a woman like that and speak to her exactly the same way as he does a wookie?
Cool might be enough for some people, but am I wrong for wanting my leading men to be sexy too?
Part of what makes Hollywood magical is that the people are prettier than we are, the interactions more sensuous, giving us all a better, more interesting version of the world to emotionally invest in. And it seems that collectively, the writers at Disney took one look at that hot hallway scene between Han and Leia in Return of the Jedi and said, “That’ll be enough of that.”
Because this is definitely a decision from on high. It’s not the actors.
Temura Morrison has always done right by this character (and the multitude of clones), so he isn’t the problem here. It’s the material.
The question is why? Was it intentional, even? I suspect it was.
Consider the sexy, smoldering Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver), who inspired terabytes of Reylo fanfiction. Even he was turned into a platonic guy friend by Disney’s writers.
Boba Fett is similar to Kylo Ren in that he is sexy partly because of the menace and, yes, power, he radiates. As it should be.
I’m hoping at some point we get some new leadership over there and Boba Fett (ideally with help from Garsa) will bring sexy back to the Star Wars universe.
Because it’s not fair to ask Adam Driver to do everything.
