Some Donald Trump supporters are planning to boycott Rogue One: A Star Wars Story over false claims that the film was redone to include "Anti Trump scenes calling him a racist." It is true that Rogue One writers Chris Weitz and Gary Whitta took a stand against Trump by sharing the Star Wars rebel logo with a safety pin. At the time, it was unclear just how much backlash the film would face for their writers' stance against the president-elect.
But even things the writers didn't do have gotten them into trouble. The anti-Star Wars brigade is planning to #DumpStarWars because of a new claim—supported by no evidence—that "Star Wars writers rewrote and reshot Rogue One to add in Anti Trump scenes calling him a racist."
On Thursday, Jack Posobiec, who claims to be the "special projects director" for a group calling themselves Citizens for Trump, tweeted, without any evidence: "Star Wars writers rewrote and reshot Rogue One to add in Anti Trump scenes calling him a racist. Disgusting." He added the hashtag #DumpStarWars to his tweet.
Of course, the claim simply is not true. Weitz, one of the writers who has posted anti-Trump tweets, responded on Twitter that the claim is "completely fake."
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Again, it is true that some of the writers have expressed anti-Trump feelings after he won the election. And separately, it is also true that the film had significant reshoots earlier this year. But those two things are not connected. According to The Wrap, the reshoots were done this summer, long before Trump won the election, and long after Whitta—one of those who shared anti-Trump tweets—had left the project back in early 2015.
But obviously, Trump supporters aren't going to let pesky facts get in the way.
In other tweets, Posobiec doubled down on his conspiracy theory, and explained that he had waited all year to see the film on his birthday but now he plans to #DumpStarWars because he's "sad to hear what they did to it."
And he's not the only one planning to boycott the new film. Others were upset about the film for "bringing race into this" and for promoting a "multiculturalism anti-American agenda."
One person also noted that a lot of people voted for Trump so insulting him probably isn't good for business:
On the other hand, this guy clapped back, noting that, actually, "the majority of the country have already shown that we prefer a female lead," referring to both the film's main character as well as Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote, despite losing the election.
Some people noted that the incredibly successful franchise likely won't be too desperate for the racists' ticket sales.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be released in theaters on Dec. 16.