Fresh off a critical drubbing and falling short on the opening weekend box office, The Rise of Skywalker also faces censorship of a same-sex kiss.
The BBC reports that prints of the film in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates deleted the kiss–the first-ever same-sex kiss in a Star Wars film–to retain a PG-13 rating. Furthermore, it’s unclear if Disney or Lucasfilm deleted the kiss for other territories as well.
News of the kiss–which appears in one brief shot–ignited immediate speculation over whether Disney & Lucasfilm would need to edit it out of the movie for foreign territories, particularly China, where homosexuality is still considered taboo. The kiss remains in Chinese prints of the film, according to reports.
Related: ‘Star Wars’ has its first on-screen same-sex kiss
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Discussion of the kiss also coincides with remarks by JJ Abrams, director & co-writer of the film, wherein he said he worried about it coming off “heavy-handed.”
“It was sort of part of the whole experience to see a same-sex couple have a moment together that was explicitly saying in the Star Wars galaxy, you know, everyone is there and is welcome,” he told MovieZine. “It doesn’t matter what your sexual preference is, doesn’t matter what your race/species, whether you’re organic or synthetic, Star Wars is for everyone and knowing that there hadn’t been a representation like that – it doesn’t take away from anyone, it just shows that Star Wars is for all of us.”
Despite the presence of the kiss, Abrams has also endured criticism for subtle homophobia in The Rise of Skywalker, as well as his other films. In both his Star Trek and Star Wars films, Abrams gave his male leads flat female love interests whose sole function in the script seemed to prove that the men were not gay.
Black Pegasus
Are there any screen caps of this infamous Gay KISS? I just got into the Star Wars fandom and I’m working my way up to seeing this film after viewing the earlier installments on Disney Plus, but I’m several movies away.
skeldare
Nothing of value lost
jjose712
Gay media should stop this nonsense, promoting films that promise but never give.
It’s absolutely ridiculous that gay media is talking about a two seconds kiss of two characters with no name like it wa a groundbreaking moment. It was not.
And of course that scene was designed to be easy to cut for some market. It’s such a non event that China didn’t even touch it
Aries3dc
If you blinked, you would have missed it anyway. It was completely irrelevant to the story, and involved characters so insignificant that I wouldn’t even call them extras. I’m not sure why Disney felt compelled to include the kiss at all, or why we would care that others are cutting it out. It’s all nonsense.
startenout
All of the celebratory reunions in that scene weren’t relevant to the story other than to show that people were happy to reunite with friends loved ones, so just like the director seems to be saying, why not include one kiss that doesn’t matter so that some kid somewhere someday can say “oh there I am” for those three seconds out of over 30 hours of Star Wars cinema?
Creamsicle
While we’re on the topic of pointless side characters, why give Greg Grunberg so many lines? His character added nothing, wouldn’t be missed if he were edited out, and he got at least 5 minutes of screentime that could have been spent making the first 30-40 minutes of the movie feel less erratic and aimless.
The only thing that it showed me was the Greg Grunberg has gotten way fatter since season 1 of Heroes.
Creamsicle
“Abrams gave his male leads flat female love interests whose sole function in the script seemed to prove that the men were not gay.”
There was barely enough time spent to flesh out a sensible plotline, let alone for real character development. The first 1/4 of the movie is oddly paced and frankly confusing because of the number of casual planet hops.
The movie is fun enough for a watch, but my boyfriend had a mile-long list of things to nitpick about. You can’t please everyone and you especially can’t please all Star Wars fans. I’m glad that they were able to give Carrie Fisher a proper send off in the movie, given that she died during filming.