A couple of days again I noticed something interesting. As I’ve previously mentioned, my son loves Star Wars and is really into building Star Wars Lego sets. As much as I have my issues with both Lego and Disney (which owns Lucasfilm), we still watch the content and build the Lego sets in my house. Naturally, my son is on top of what Lego sets are coming out, and the other day he reported to me that Boba Fett’s Starship Slave 1 would be coming out soon.
So, naturally, I checked out Lego.com–and sure enough, a new edition of Boba Fett’s Slave 1 is indeed coming.
Well, not exactly.
Apparently, we can't call Boba Fett's ship "Slave I" anymore. pic.twitter.com/d5MPKhYSrE
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) June 28, 2021
Umm… “Boba Fett’s Starship”?
Yeah. Apparently, according to the site Brick Fanatics, Disney asked Lego to rename the ship.
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“It’s probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use anymore,” said Lego Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen.
The original version of the ship produced by Lego was indeed called Slave I and is still listed on the site as such. The new set comes in advance of the debut of The Book of Boba Fett, a new spinoff series following the wildly popular Disney+ show The Mandalorian.
When asked by a contributor at Brickset.com about dropping the Slave I name from the ship, Frederiksen explained, “Everybody is. It’s probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use anymore.”
Why exactly has the ship been renamed? Without any official word from Disney, we can only assume what their explanation will be. However, it’s quite obvious someone at Disney was triggered by the term “slave.”
Disney has made some really bizarre moves over the past few years in order to prove how woke the company is. On Disney+, its streaming service, older movies are slapped with content warnings and aren’t available to watch on profiles designated for children because of racial stereotypes. Rides at Disney World and Disneyland have been re-themed. Did you know that Splash Mountain was offensive? Neither did I. Earlier this year, Disney fired Gina Carano from The Mandalorian. This was allegedly over a tweet, but Disney was reportedly looking to fire the pro-Trump actress for some time.
There was also Disney’s Orwellian sanitization of past institutionalized racism in the live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp. Lady became the pet of an interracial couple… in 1909. The town the movie takes place in is supposed to be based on an unnamed Midwestern town inspired by Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri. In 1909, interracial marriage was actually illegal in the state, and would be until 1967. At the time of its release, I asked, “What purpose does it serve to portray historical periods reflecting modern attitudes? What message does it send when we sanitize the past by pretending that slavery never happened or that racism didn’t exist? Shall we censor the scourge of slavery from our history books, too? Is whitewashing racism the answer to current-day racism?”
It seems that with the renaming of Boba Fett’s Slave I, Disney is continuing the trend of whitewashing anything that potentially triggers those who can’t handle the unfortunate realities of the past. I honestly have no idea what the origins of the name Slave I are. Frankly, I don’t care. But should the word “slave” be so taboo that it merits being scrubbed? Does someone at Disney really think the word “slave” in this context promotes or glorifies slavery?
Has Disney lost its mind????
