Star Wars Novel Adds First Canon Openly Gay Character
Even though the rebooting of the expanded universe of Star Wars did draw much ire from fans, it has meant that there is room for improvement amongst the standard canon. One such possible improvement is a more diverse cast of characters, and that is an opportunity that is being taken with both hands as it’s been confirmed that an upcoming Star Wars novel, Lord of the Sith, will have Star Wars’ first unambiguously openly gay character.
Moff Mars is an imperial whose had a troubled past and is working hard to have a less troubled future, and she is a lesbian. Speaking on the Full of Sith podcast, editor Shelly Shapiro said on the need for diversity in Star Wars, “You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognize that there’s a lot of diversity in humans. If there’s any message at all, it’s simply that Star Wars is as diverse—or more so because they have alien species—as humanity is in real life and we don’t want to pretend it’s not. It just felt perfectly natural.”
The novel, Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp, is due for release April 28th, 2015. You can preorder it from Amazon here.
