1. Aftercollectingmyresultsfromthe surveys,whichIsentoutto myclass matesand otherpeople I
thoughtthat I couldbenefitoff of theiranswers,Ifoundoutthat star warsnow hasa verydiverse
audience comparedtohowitusedto be withits oldtargetaudience beingyoungwhitemales.
Despite thisIstill foundthatmore malescalledthemselvesstarwarsfansthan my female
participants,5 outof 6 malessaidtheyare star wars fanscomparedto 2 out of 6 femalessayingthat
theyare star warsfans.
Thiswas interestingaseventhoughonly2
femalessaidtheywere starwarsfans4 of
themsaidthat theyhad watchedandenjoyed
force awakens,andthe only2 participants
that didn’tenjoyforce awakenswerethey
twofemaleswhohadn’twatchedit.This
meansthat frommy results100% of the
participantswhowatchedstarwars the force
awakensenjoyedit.
I had a questiononmysurveyaskingthe
participantsaboutwhotheymostrelatedto
whenitcame to the characters inthe film, 5
out of the 6 femalesansweredReywhichIwasexpectingasthisprovesthatDisney’smarketing
campaignto getmore womentowatch the filmworked. However1female answeredthatshe most
relatedtoFinn (a blackmale),thisparticipantputthemselvesinthe ‘blackorAfricanAmerican’
groupfor my ethnicityquestion.Thisshowsyetagainthatthe castingagentsmade a conscious
decisiontomake one of the maincharacters of the movie aBritishNigerian tomake the movies
target audience broader.The majorityof the malesmostrelatedtoeitherHanSoloor Finnthiswas
no surprise asthese charactersare the ‘strongmales’inthe movie.
I alsofoundthat I had a verydiverse starwarsaudience,Ihadanswersfrom:white/Caucasian,
black/AfricanAmericanandAsian/AsianAmerican.Thisshowsthatinrecentyearsstarwars have
triedto expandtheirfanbase (thatisstereotypicallywhite males) intoamore diverse market,they
didthisby makingthe trailerforforce awakenshave a female voice forthe narration,havingablack
male beingthe firstmale face we see inthe trailerandhimbeingthe firstpersontohave a blue
lightsaber,havingafemale beingthe mainprotagonistandmanyotheranti-stereotypes.
The trailerfor star warsforce awakenswasa huge marketingcampaigntomake sure everyone from
everybackgroundcouldenjoystarwars.
