The producer of “Star Wars Resistance” revealed earlier this week the children’s show does, in fact, feature a same-sex couple.
Justin Ridge, the show’s executive producer, said Monday on the “Coffee with Kenobi” podcast that the male characters Flix and Orka are an item.
“They’re absolutely a gay couple, and we’re proud of that,” he said. “I think it’s safe to say they’re an item, absolutely.”
Fans of the series have been speculating about the two characters’ sexual orientation since the show’s first season, according to the New York Post, when the pair talked about visiting Flix’s mother.
Flix and Orka are the first gay couple to appear in the “Star Wars” franchise since it first debuted in 1977, though entertainer Donald Glover’s character in 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” — Lando Calrissian — was pansexual, which describes a person who has no specific sexual orientation but will engage romantically with anyone in the ever-widening sexual lexicon.
Screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan told The Huffington Post, “There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee [Williams]’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality. I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”
News about “Star Wars Resistance” comes the same week it was reported Disney plans to give “Frozen” character Elsa a girlfriend in the third installment of the popular kids’ franchise.
According to We Got This Covered, Elsa will have “a female love interest” in the third “Frozen” movie. Disney considered introducing the same-sex romance in the second film, which premieres in November, but executives were reportedly concerned such a move would result in some countries prohibiting the release of the kids’ flick.
Idina Menzel, who plays Elsa, has long supported the fan push to give the female children’s character a girlfriend. In 2016, she called the idea “great.”