Story highlights Lewis Beale: 'Rogue One' boasts a wildly diverse cast of human actors: Asian, Hispanic, African-American, Pakistani, Caucasian

Beale: Its release a month before Trump takes office is the height of irony -- a slap to the least inclusive president in modern history

Lewis Beale writes about culture and film for the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and other publications. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Fifty years after "Star Trek" launched a multiracial and multicultural crew into outer space, the "Star Wars" franchise has finally joined the diversity universe. "Rogue One," the latest film set in a galaxy far, far away, boasts a wildly varied cast of human actors -- Asian, Hispanic, African-American, Pakistani.

Lewis Beale

And in this fraught political moment, such refreshing diversity comes across as a rebuke to President-elect Donald Trump's campaign.

George Lucas' creation has for years been populated by humans who are almost overwhelmingly Caucasian, with the occasional minority thrown in for spice -- Bill Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi;" Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu in "The Phantom Menace," "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith;" and Maori actor Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett in "Attack of the Clones" and Commander Cody in "Revenge of the Sith;" and Jimmy Smits in "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith."

But these earlier, pallid attempts at multi-culturalism don't hold a candle to the range of colors and ethnicities in "Rogue One." The heroes of the film, nearly all members of the Rebel Alliance attempting to steal the plans of the Empire's ominous Death Star, include a Mexican (Diego Luna), Puerto Rican (Smits), Englishwoman (Felicity Jones), African-American (Forest Whitaker), Dane (Mads Mikkelsen), two Chinese men (Wen Jiang and Donnie Yen) and a British/Pakistani/Muslim (Riz Ahmed).

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As if to heighten the contrast, the leaders of the Empire -- who include a brilliant CGI rendering of actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994 and appeared in the original "Star Wars" -- are all preening Caucasian imperialists; you can imagine them goose-stepping around their space ships.

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