Did you hear that Lizzo was on the most recent episode of The Mandalorian? THE HORROR. Certain segments of the internet would have me believe it that spells the end of Star Wars forever, because…something. I don’t know, people, I can’t keep track of the outrage. I think it’s because she’s awesome? And only sad unpopular people are allowed to like the most well-known and well-loved franchise of all time?
I stopped keeping track of the Star Wars fandom outrage around the time that young whippersnappers tried to tell me–a woman who brought her five best girlfriends to see Return of the Jedi on opening night for her birthday sleepover party as a teenager–that girls had never been Star Wars fans. They would say this to me, a woman who has unabashedly loved Star Wars since it came out when I was eight years old and they were literally not born yet. TO ME, a person whose entire office took the day off when Star Wars returned to theaters in the 1990s so we could go see it on the first day. WE WORE OUR HAIR IN PRINCESS LEIA BUNS AND THEY PUT US ON THE NEWS.
If Lizzo had been old enough to work with me at that company, she would’ve been there in all her glory because she loves Star Wars too.
Anyway, there was outrage about her casting in a Star Wars property. I don’t think it was entirely the typical “girls don’t like Star Wars” stuff this time, though, because Jack Black played her husband on The Mandalorian and folks seemed thrown by that as well.
But you know who else was there and I didn’t hear much anger? Doc Brown from Back to the Future! Christopher Lloyd, who is fantastic in everything and got to be just as fantastic in this!
Look, I think The Mandalorian is going downhill. I loved it when it was about a reluctant dad having to incorporate a baby into his solitary gunslinger lifestyle, but it’s less interesting when it’s about a group of people described as a “cult.” And frankly, the mystic coolness of being a Mandalorian is less cool when the show starts explaining things like “how do you eat when you can’t take the mask off” and giving us scenes with a bunch of Mandalorians around a campfire all going off alone to chow down. That’s not intriguing, it’s just silly. Plus, when there are Mando kids calling Mando adults “dad” it begs the question of how do these people have sex and do they leave their masks on and…yeah, it’s all just gotten silly.
But you know what’s not silly? Lizzo and her enthusiasm for being in Star Wars. Jack Black, except when he means to be silly, in which case it’s glorious. And Christopher Freaking Lloyd, may he live forever and be in every single sci-fi franchise that exists.
