The actor who played Boba Fett in Star Wars has criticized Disney for renaming the galactic bounty hunter's spaceship.
Mark Anthony Austin, who played the Mandalorian clone in the remaster of Star Wars: A New Hope (in a previously-deleted scene in which Han Solo negotiates with Jabba the Hutt), took to Twitter to slam Disney's decision to rebrand the Slave 1 craft.
In a post shared with his 12,000 followers on the platform, the actor wrote: "When applying for personalized plates for my car the DMV would not allow 'Slave 1'. Okay I understand. Had to try. But I get it.
"This #disney idiocy however. Not buying it. Not conforming to the Mouse, no siree. Not gonna happen. When I was growing up I loved #disney. No more. [sic]"
Austin then wrote in a follow-up post: "You have to consider [whose] ship it is. A bounty hunter. A hunter of dangerous targets. Somebody like that imbues mystery, darkness, and brooding…."
He continued: "Slave 1 is a perfect name for such a character's spaceship. It too imbues a dark and ominous threat to be feared by any fugitive. [sic]"
In another tweet, Austin simply wrote: "My ship will forever be Slave1. Nothing. Not even #disney can or will change that. This is the way."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett's spaceship, the so-called Slave 1, which was first introduced in the 1980 movie The Empire Strikes Back, is going to be rebranded and simply called: "Starship."
The above publication reports that an upcoming Lego set of the craft, due to be released in August, now bears the name "Starship" in lieu of "Slave 1."
In an interview with ComicBook, Lego Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen stated: "Everybody is [changing the name].
"It's probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use anymore."
However, the Star Wars franchise already contains a number of references to slavery - as the emancipation of the character of Anakin Skywalker from the alien character of Watto is a key plot point of The Phantom Menace.
The crime lord Jabba the Hutt is also seen to keep a harem of concubines, which Carrie Fisher's character of Princess Leia was briefly forced to join, in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.