#DumpStarWars

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Part of a series on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. [View Related Entries]

About

#DumpStarWars is a hashtag spread on Twitter that calls for a boycott of the upcoming film Star Wars: Rogue One after a rumor spread that scenes in the film had been altered to promote an anti-Trump agenda.

Origin

Anti-Star Wars sentiments had been spreading since Rogue One screenwriter Chris Weitz tweeted a few days after the 2016 United States Presidential Election that Star Wars was against hate and pointed out that the villainous Empire is a white supremacist organization.^[1] This angered white supremacists, who had threatened to boycott the film.^[2] The rumors of the boycott and the hashtag "#DumpStarWars" began to spread when Trump supporter Jack Posobiec^[3] tweeted the hashtag along with an unsubstantiated claim that Star Wars writers had rewritten and reshot the film to include scenes that called Trump a racist.

Spread

Weitz was quick to call the notion that the film was rewritten to include anti-Trump scenes "completely fake,"^[4] but the hashtag had already started to spread. One notable sincere response came from author Mark Dice, who claimed The Force Awakens and Rogue One were propaganda films and that Mark Hamill had claimed Luke Skywalker was gay. The tweet, shown below, gained 745 retweets and 1,745 favorites.

However, the majority of posts including the hashtag were made to mock it.^[5] Many users pointed out how Star Wars had always been about rebelling against white supremacy and fascism and that the boycotting the film for those ideals was oblivious and racist.^[6] The AV Club,^[7] Mashable,^[8] and The Daily Beast^[9] covered the spread of the hashtag.

Turnout

Rogue One made $155 million in North America and $135 million internationally on its opening weekend, making it the fourth-biggest opening weekend on record, behind Avatar, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.^[10] Despite this, some still called #DumpStarWars a success, most notably alt-right mouthpiece and Shit Account Tournament finalist Mike Cernovich, who claimed that the movement was still a success in a tweet shown below.

Gizmodo^[11] and The Daily Dot^[12] covered the reaction from the #DumpStarWars supporters who claimed the boycott worked despite the film having made $290 million dollars on its opening weekend.