Donald Glover pokes fun at Star Wars over lack of black actors

Actor Donald Glover appears to have taken aim at Star Wars for a lack of black actors.

Glover, who stars in the sci-fi franchise’s forthcoming spin-off film Solo: A Star Wars story, made the quip during a skit while hosting US comedy variety show Saturday Night Live.

It came as the screen star, writer and musician – otherwise known as Childish Gambino – also made an impact with a newly-released music video addressing gun violence in America.

Appearing as his character Lando Calrissian in a sketch about a “galactic summit for black humans”, Glover joked that “this started with one question – where the hell are all the black people in space?”

He said: “For a while I thought it was me, the only one, but now I see before me all the black humans in the galaxy.”

The camera cut away to a large function room with just three people sat in it.

Glover continued: “I’ll say it – turnout was a little low. We were expecting a thousand guests – I held out a hope that there was a black human planet somewhere, but I guess it’s just us.

“Lots of lizard men wearing vests. Just four black people though.”

Of the main characters in the franchise’s history in its various films, there have been far fewer black characters than white, including Lando Calrissian, Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson), Finn (John Boyega) and Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).

Thandie Newton appears in the new Han Solo standalone film as Val, alongside Glover.

During his hosting stint on Saturday Night Live, 34-year-old Glover debuted his new single and video This Is America.

The start of the video, which flits between being light-hearted and serious in nature, sees the Grammy Award-winner place a gun on a red cloth.

Throughout the clip, he dances through a warehouse in an upbeat manner, but stops to shoot a choir and others throughout.

Since This Is America was unveiled on the late-night TV show, it has been viewed more than 1.7 million times on YouTube.