The Star Wars Universe Gets Its First Official LGBT Character

Photo: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp

No, you won't see Lupita Nyong'o or Adam Driver warming up to same-sex partners in Episode VII out later this year -- even in A Galaxy Far, Far Away, visibility and representation can take time to get up to speed.

NPR is reporting that Moff Delian Mors will be the Star Wars extended universe's first official lesbian, and will appear in Paul S. Kemp's upcoming novel, Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. Penguin Random House said this about the character:

"Moff Delian Mors is a supporting character in Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. She was a promising officer in the Empire, who was assigned to an undesirable post at the far end of the galaxy. At nearly the same point in her life, her wife was killed in a transport accident, and the weight of these burdens led to Delian becoming lax in her duties, and left her personal life in disarray. The events of Star Wars: Lords of the Sith occur a few years after her loss."

Though Mors only exists in the extended universe - basically anything existing outside of the film storylines, including novels, video game lore, and comic books - progress is progress. As NPR notes, Star Wars has a bumpy past with LGBT characters and same-sex relationship inclusion. It's been a small feature in previous video games but criticism hasn't been handled well.

In the Full of Sith podcast, editor Shelly Shapiro said:

"It's not something I really think about, it just makes sense. There should be diversity in Star Wars. You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognize that there's a lot of diversity in humans. If there's any message at all, it's simply that Star Wars is as diverse (or more so because they have alien species) as humanity is in real life and we don't want to pretend it's not. It just felt perfectly natural."

Star Wars: Lords of the Sith releases April 28, and Episode VII will be in theaters this December.