The new star of Disney's upcoming Star Wars spinoff has said the diversification of the franchise's cast ‘should have happened sooner’.
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Moses Ingram, 29, spoke to Tyla about the historic lack of inclusivity within the beloved series, which comes not long after John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran received racist abuse following their roles in the Skywalker trilogy.
“I think it’s so important, I think they should have done it sooner,” says Moses. “But I’m glad that I am the person that they saw fit to be put in this position, and I enjoyed it and I hope that other people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.”
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The franchise has historically had a mainly-white cast, however, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 first saw the brand undergoing changes to the diversity in its casting, and placed British-Nigerian actor John Boyega at the forefront, alongside Guatemalan-American actor Oscar Isaac and Lupita Nyong’o, a Kenyan-Mexican actress, within the cast.
Moses taking on the role of The Third Sister marks a turning point for cultural diversity for the Star Wars Disney+ franchise, which was previously created by Lucasfilm, and hadn't previously put women of colour at the top of the casting roster.
It follows the huge success of Black Panther, Coco and Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings – the latter of which raked in a huge $423.2 million (£338 million) in box office hits.
Moses recognises just how important her new role is for young Black women and fought to have her hair styled naturally for the role so that young people could see 'themselves' reflected in the character.
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“You know if a kid loves Frozen and wants to be Elsa, they don’t feel complete unless they have the blonde wig and braid – you know what I mean?
“It just wouldn’t feel right if I’d donned hair that wasn’t me when there are kids like me who could be themselves on Halloween and it would be okay if I am, so that was cool.”
As for joining the cast of a series with an already huge, pre-established fan base, that was an entirely ‘nerve-wracking’ experience for the star.
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“It’s definitely nerve-wracking because people love [Star Wars] so much and want to tell you how they feel about it,” she says.
“But at the same time, it’s above me now. Everything that I could do, I’ve done, so my job is done. It’s theirs now, anything else doesn’t really concern me.”
However, in her previous role as Jolene DeWitt in The Queen’s Gambit, the actor was already familiar with a similar kind of fan reception, and is now bracing herself for the already building enthusiasm surrounding Obi-Wan Kenobi.
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“[The] Queen's Gambit was definitely my first sort of soiree into fandom and fan-cams and edits and fan-art, so I think it was a nice introduction into what this is panning out to be.
“I have [received] a lot of fan art, people building costumes, there’s a lot of excitement out there.”
But if you’ve already got your sights set on a second season, even Moses is in the dark about what’s on the cards for the show.
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“Well, I guess that would depend on how it ends,” she says. “At this rate, there’s a large chance that I think I know how it ends, and I don’t actually know. So, I guess we’ll all find out together.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts exclusively on Disney+ from 27th May
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, Disney, Disney Plus
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Gabriella Ferlita