Disney has renamed a famous spaceship from the Star Wars franchise in an apparent bid to remove negative connotations.
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."
Take a look at the trailer for season two of The Mandalorian in the video below: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.
This comes not long after The Mandalorian cast member Gina Carano was fired from the role of Cara Dune in the Disney+ series due to her controversial political Twitter posts.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Disney CEO Bob Chapek was asked about whether the company had "blacklisted" Carano by a caller during the Q&A portion of a March shareholder meeting.
In response, Chapek stated that Disney was neither "left-leaning or right-leaning" as an organization.
Chapek continued: "[Disney stands] for values that are universal. Values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity, and values of inclusion.
"And we seek to have the content that we make reflective of the rich diversity of the world we live in. And I think that’s a world we should all live in harmony and peace."
In a post on Instagram and Twitter, Carano controversially made reference to The Holocaust when speaking about the 2020 Us Presidential Election, writing: "Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children.
"Because history is edited, most people today don't realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews.
"How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?"