'Rogue One' cast gets mildly political, stands up for diversity

It says a lot about post-election politics -- and the traditional caution of Hollywood -- that when actors in a major movie make a non-controversial statement about the importance of diversity in society, it is cause for wild applause.

But that's what happened Friday at the Rogue One Q&A at Lucasfilm, which was livestreamed on Twitter. People's deputy editor and moderator JD Heyman pointedly asked the Star Wars movie's cast, and its director Gareth Edwards, whether the movie had any kind of message for the real world.

Now it has seemed obvious for a while to many viewers that there's a political message in a movie about a band of diverse, downtrodden rebels coming together to strike a blow at an authoritarian leader who has transformed a Republic into an Empire. As Forest Whitaker says at the beginning of the first full Rogue One trailer: "The world is coming undone."

But Disney and Lucasfilm have been studiously silent on any political question, despite Star Wars' long history of taking a progressive, pro-diversity stance. Some industry experts suggest speaking up about the film's politics -- as its writers did on Twitter before deleting anti-Trump tweets -- could risk losing ticket sales to millions of Trump voters.

So when Edwards started to answer Heyman's question, there was hope that he was finally going to speak out on the matter:

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Edwards added that without lessons, the movies would just be "spaceships and explosions." However, he stopped short of suggesting what those life lessons should be -- other than saying the first movie teaches us to turn off our computers, as Luke does in the attack on the Death Star, and go outside.

It was up to actor Diego Luna, who plays Captain Cassian Andor, to pick up on the meaning of the question. Luna said the movie teaches our world to "celebrate our differences, because that's what makes us stronger."

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Luna's comments were met with nods of approval from the rest of the cast and the most enthusiastic applause for any comment at the event, which was otherwise notable only for its softball questions.

It shouldn't be surprising that Luna would want to speak out on the subject. In October, he directed this ad for Jarritos celebrating the role of immigrants in America -- a subtle poke in the eye for Donald Trump's claim, for which the president-elect never apologized, that Mexico is "not sending its best."

Luna, a highly accomplished actor, director and producer, was born in Mexico City.

Rogue One, which features the most diverse cast of any Star Wars movie in history, releases on Dec.16.