Tony Gilroy, the creator of Disney’s Star Wars film and streaming series, criticized what he described as a takeover by “fascists” in America. During his acceptance speech at the Peabody Awards, he compared the Trump administration to a fictional evil empire.
When he stepped up to the podium, Gilroy reflected on how, when he began developing the Disney series six years ago, he couldn’t have predicted living in a country overshadowed by fascism, as noted in a report.
He spoke to the Peabody audience, expressing, “For six years, we’ve been pondering a fascist takeover of a galaxy far, far away. For six years, we’ve been thinking about what happens to ordinary people when an authoritarian, insane, unchecked regime enters into the bargain. And this show is exactly what we learned.”
Gilroy encouraged those on the left to take a stand.
“If you’re not willing to fight for what you love—your family, your community, your culture, your planet, your truth, your freedom—there’s always someone who’ll come in and take it away,” he insisted.
“We discovered that courage, sacrifice, and resistance come in all shapes and sizes. We also learned that courage is contagious,” he shared, reflecting on the lessons learned during the show’s production.
He further argued that the “oppressors” have committed numerous atrocities, leaving people too drained to resist.
“There’s just so much happening; it’s like a firehose of noise, you can’t get through it,” Gilroy remarked. He also noted that every current event in American history seems to be accompanied by various acts of outrage.
He ended his speech by calling on journalists to “take down” Trump’s “empire.”
“Don’t stop. Don’t turn off the lights until we end this nightmare,” he urged those in the media, suggesting a shift towards activism rather than traditional journalism.
Gilroy’s criticisms of Trump and the Republican Party align closely with the strategies outlined by Saul Alinsky in “Rules for Radicals,” created in the 1970s to empower leftist movements in the U.S.
Interestingly, this political stance comes at a time when Disney is facing challenges with its latest release. The recent Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu, had one of the worst opening weekends ever for a Disney production.
