I know time and societies have changed much since the late 70's, but was there a deliberate boardroom policy to make the Star Wars Rogue One (2016) film so diversely cast?
In the 'original', there were so few, if any, ethnic actors visible, yet this one is the opposite, even compared to the other recent films, perhaps?
[deleted]
When Star Wars was released, the movie studios had the American movie going public demographic as their main target and in 1977 over 60% of that would have been white american men and boys from 14 to 34, or somewhere around there, with the second demographic being white american girls which is why the Princess Leia character was so prominent.
If Rogue One, even though it is a prequel to the original trilogy, was released with the same target demographic it would have come across as stale and outdated. Besides, the heroin of the Rogue One was a white British girl, so it's not like they went full 180 and cast a Butch Nigerian Lesbian