The Star Wars franchise is unlike anything else in pop culture history.
While you can't deny just how massive Star Wars has been, it's not all sunshine and Ewoks.
Star Wars has had plenty of negative effects on people.
Some, in fact, have even had their lives ruined by the beloved franchise.
When Jake Lloyd was cast to play Anakin Skywalker, he was only 8 years old; 8 years old and set
to play the younger version of a character who had become arguably one of the greatest,
most popular villains in film history.
Of course he couldn't have known what kind of shoes he had to fill at the time.
It's easy to forget the hype that surrounded the prequel trilogy.
There was a 16-year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, so the second
trilogy was highly anticipated.
When it failed to impress, it failed hard.
And poor Jake Lloyd took a critical beating.
Four months before the movie even premiered, Newsweek was labeling him, quote, "Mannequin
Skywalker."
Things didn't get better from there.
As the AV Club explained, Lloyd's life was hell after Star Wars.
He talked about being hounded by up to 60 interviews a day and the kids at school bullying
him incessantly.
He grew to hate it so much he actually destroyed all his Star Wars memorabilia so he wouldn't
have to be reminded of it, and retired from acting before he was even a teenager.
As the Star Wars prequels chronicled the growth of Anakin Skywalker from fresh-faced kid into
morbid emo-kid and finally into hate-fueled cyborg in a really awesome costume, the acting
role passed from little Jake Lloyd to Hayden Christensen.
Christensen had been building up a reputation as an actor before the film.
Consider him like an earlier version of John Boyega, an up-and-coming young actor with
a few hits under his belt who got catapulted to a galaxy far, far away.
Except for Christensen, it didn't seem to go well once he got there.
Christensen was raked over the coals for his performances in Episodes II and III.
His emotionless line delivery and perplexing character growth hit a sour note in movies
that were already full of sour notes in many people's eyes.
Christensen himself felt his career was on the wrong path after the movies and actually
quit Hollywood because of it.
As Cinema Blend noted, Christensen felt like his meteoric rise to the spotlight wasn't
earned.
He retreated from Hollywood because he didn't like that he was suddenly so big.
He understood doing so would hurt his career and was okay with that, too.
He told Yahoo:
"If I can come back afterward and claw my way back in, then maybe I'll feel like I earned
it."
Not a lot of people recognized Kelly Marie Tran when she was cast in Star Wars: The Last
Jedi.
She'd had a decent amount of work in the years before, but nothing nearly so high profile
as the role of maintenance worker Rose Tico.
Unfortunately, what should have been a great cause for celebration for Tran became something
of a nightmare in terms of the reaction from a certain section of the Star Wars fandom.
With the release of the third Star Wars trilogy came a vocal group of critics who decided
the series was being ruined by Disney and the new writers and directors.
Many of the criticisms claim that quote, unquote, "social justice warriors" were influencing
the movies and including characters, like Rose Tico, simply to force diversity.
While most people understand this line of thought to be little more than veiled racism
and online bullying, it didn't stop the campaign of harassment against Tran.
As the BBC details, people overwhelmed Tran's Instagram with hateful comments ranging from
misogynistic to racist and beyond.
People insulted her appearance, her weight, her ethnicity, and more.
While others were quick to jump to her defense, Tran deleted her social media altogether.
Tran will return in Episode IX.
One of the biggest names to be attached to Star Wars after the first trilogy was Natalie
Portman.
She's a huge star these days, but it's easy to overlook what the Star Wars prequels almost
did to her career.
She was cast at a time when she'd had a handful of solid roles as a very young actor.
Star Wars was essentially her big break as an adult.
It seemed like a good, logical step in her career after roles in things like The Professional
and Everyone Says I Love You.
Portman shared a story with New York Magazine about how, after Star Wars came out, no director
wanted to work with her.
She'd been in the highest-grossing movie of the decade, but everyone thought she was a
terrible actress.
Luckily for Portman, she had a friend in director Mike Nichols.
Nichols, director of The Graduate, had also directed Portman on stage in Seagull.
He wrote a letter on her behalf to the director of Cold Mountain, effectively pulling her
future out of the dumpster fire that swallowed so many others and giving her a second chance.
Fortunately for audiences, Nichols made a great call and Portman has gone on to have
an impressive career, but she was that close.
For all the less-than-beloved characters out there in that galaxy far, far away, there's
easily one Star Wars quote, unquote, "icon" who was hated beyond all others: Jar Jar Binks.
The backlash against Jar Jar was simply legendary.
"Meesa called Jar Jar Binks.
Meesa your humble servant."
"That won't be necessary."
"Oh, but it is!
T'is demanded by the gods, it is."
While Jar Jar was a digital representation on screen, there was still an actor involved
doing the voice and serving as the real-world basis for that character during filming.
The actor was Ahmed Best, and the response to his role devastated him.
Best had never had a role in a major film before Star Wars, so this was a big deal for
him.
After the movie came out, people were literally sending him death threats and telling him
on the streets that he'd ruined their childhood, according to Wired.
The full scope of just how bad things got didn't come to light until July 2018, when
Best tweeted that he contemplated ending his own life over the backlash.
Thankfully that never happened.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.