John Boyega blasts Game of Thrones for lack of diversity
Star Wars actor John Boyega takes aim at Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones for not having any black people…
John Boyega, who burst onto the scene when he was cast as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, took aim at fantasy genre giants Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones for their lack of diversity, in an interview with GQ Magazine.
When Boyega’s character first appeared in the original teaser for The Force Awakens, it came as a shock to an ignorant subset of the Star Wars fandom, as he literally popped up out of nowhere, wearing a Stormtrooper’s armor (apparently black people weren’t allowed to be Stormtroopers). As one of the leads in the film, Boyega helped to usher in a new generation of Star Wars fans, a generation that includes people of all color.
In his comments to GQ, Boyega talks about Lord of the Rings not having any black people — and he’s right. However, the actor then leveled his blaster at Game of Thrones but was wrong about the show’s lack of diversity.
“There are no black people on Game of Thrones.”
Not to detract from Boyega’s statements about a lack of diversity in the fantasy genre as a whole, because he’s right overall, and it is a very important issue that needs to be addressed, but Game of Thrones does, in fact, have a black actors in important roles, and has had other black people play supporting roles in past seasons.
Since season 2 of the HBO flagship show, actress Nathalie Emmanuel has portrayed Missandei, close advisor and friend to Daenerys Targaryen, and actor Jacob Anderson has portrayed the leader of the Unsullied, Grey Worm.
During that time, veteran actor DeObia Oparei portrayed the personal bodyguard to Doran Martell, Nonso Anozie portrayed a rich merchant named Xaro Xhoan Daxos. And, before that, actor Lucian Msamati portrayed pirate Salladhor Saan.
Hopefully, in the future, Boyega will do some basic fact checking before making inaccurate statements regarding such an extremely important topic like the very real lack of diversity in Hollywood.
Next: Our Star Wars: The Last Jedi behind the scenes reel breakdown
Game of Thrones season 7 is airing now on HBO, and John Boyega will return to the big screen as Finn, when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15.