Simon Pegg is one of the few actors who have appeared in both Star Wars and Star Trek. As a result, he was able to experience two of the biggest fandoms in entertainment and the level of vitriol that they inflict on the people who are involved in both franchises. Now, the actor gets candid about the difference between the two fandoms based on his experience and observation.
As reported by Screen Rant, in a recent interview with Faction Talk on SiriusXM Radio, Pegg was asked about the differences between Star Wars and Star Trek fans where he called the former "most toxic" and plagued the franchise with hate while praising the latter for being "very, very inclusive" and promoting diversity since its inception.
"To be honest -- and as someone who... kicked off about the prequels when they came out -- the Star Wars fanbase really seems to be the most, kind of, toxic at the moment," Pegg said.
He continued, "I mean, I'm out of it now... I've apologized for the things I've said about Jar Jar Binks because of course there was a fucking actor involved, you know. He was getting a lot of flak. It wasn't a camp rabbit, it was a human being. And because it got a lot of hate, he suffered. And I feel terrible about being part of that. In Spaced, my character was always ragging on those films but really that was just me talking about how much I didn't like them."
Afterward, Pegg went on to praise Star Trek. "But I find the Star Trek fans have always been very very inclusive. You know, Star Trek's about diversity," he noted. "It has been since 1966. It always was. There's no, sort of like, 'Oh, you're suddenly being woke now.' Star Trek was woke from the beginning. You had a Japanese navigator just after the second World War. There was a black woman on the deck in the position of authority. This is massively progressive."
"Star Wars, suddenly there's a little bit more diversity and everyone's kicking off about it and really sad, you know," the actor concluded.
It is unfortunate to hear Pegg's disappointment in the Star Wars fandom. Whether you agree with his comments or not, we do have to acknowledge that there is toxicity that is happening in the world of fandom and you can see that Pegg feels frustrated about its current state now that he has experienced different sides of it.
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Obviously, fandom will be a better place if such toxicity won't get tolerated and the differences will be embraced more instead of just being hostile to one another.