Throughout the history of the Star Wars franchise, there have been very few black characters. In the seventh episode of the saga, set to be released in late 2015, John Boyega, who is black, plays a storm trooper. This goes against the whole point of storm troopers.

Storm troopers are identical clones who all serve the same purpose. A black actor playing a storm trooper just does not make sense, considering all the other storm troopers are of the same Maori descent.

According to sophomore Franklin Douglass, it defeats the purpose of having a clone army if the storm troopers are different.

Many have criticized the film for having a black actor, not because it refutes the point of storm troopers or anything similar to that, but for racial reasons.

“I think that people just don’t like the change of the black storm trooper since they do not want Disney to change too much and mess up Star Wars,” Douglass said.

John Boyega, the black actor set to play a storm trooper, has appeared in many other films, but has never faced controversy quite like this. He has previously appeared in movies such as Attack the Block and Imperial Dreams.

According to a CNN article, Boyega may not even be a storm trooper- he could be a rebel in a storm trooper uniform, but this is unlikely.

If Boyega does indeed end up portraying a storm trooper in the film, it would almost certainly receive mixed reviews, whether the movie is critically well-received or not.

According to sophomore Bardia Memar, he expects the film to be a masterpiece, no matter what Boyega’s role is.

The fury over a black Star Wars storm trooper reminds us that racism is NOT a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.