'Star Wars Resistance' pushing boundaries with people-centric storylines like franchise's 1st openly gay couple Orka and Flix
The Disney animated series 'Star Wars Resistance' has received a lot of praise for its breathtakingly beautiful artwork, innovative animation, and exciting starship battles. However, the show has been taking the 'Star Wars' universe to new frontiers in other ways as well, including by introducing the first openly gay couple in the franchise.
Orka (Bobby Moynihan) and Flix (Jim Rash) were introduced in the first season of 'Star Wars Resistance' as the wacky duo running the Office of Acquisitions, a starship parts shop on the Colossus platform. Ahead of the launch of the series’ second (and final) season, executive producers Athena Portillo, Justin Ridge, and Brandon Auman spoke to the podcast 'Coffee With Kenobi', confirming speculation that the characters are a gay couple.
“I think it’s safe to say they’re an item,” Ridge said. “They’re absolutely a gay couple and we’re proud of that.” We'll be seeing more of Orka and Flix's relationship this season according to Moynihan, whose excellent chemistry with Rash has been a major factor behind the couple's popularity. In an interview with CBR, Moynihan revealed Orka and Flix are his "favorite little couple" and that he would love to do a spin-off series focused on just them and their robots.
"I don't know if it's well known, but when I got the script originally it wasn't called Star Wars," Moynihan said. "And they weren't Orka and Flix, they were Oscar and Felix [from The Odd Couple]. That was their whole thing... What I always say about Orka and Flix, what I always force in there, when Flix says 'I love you,' Orka says 'I know.' They love each other. I think you'll get a little more Orka and Flix, you'll see them more outside of work [this season]. They're my favorite little couple. I want to do a family spin-off with them and their robots."
Besides the pathbreaking work the show has done in technical and social arenas, 'Star Wars Resistance' has also made some important strides by focusing on the stories of the unsung heroes of 'Star Wars', the people who often get lost in the shadows of the grand cosmic battles. Sure, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) may be the most recognized figures in the franchise but the people who populate the galaxy are the ones with the most interesting stories to tell and 'Star Wars Resistance' has done an excellent job in bringing those to the fore.
In the same interview, Moynihan also revealed that, to him, these quieter stories of the galaxy are what the 'Star Wars' franchise is all about. "The Cantina and Jabba's Palace, to me, are what Star Wars is," Moynihan explained. "It's just a bunch of people in masks making a movie. That's the fun part of Star Wars, all the minutia, and weird little characters. That's what Resistance is. It's all the people who work in Star Wars, the people who don't have a lightsaber and are just going to work. That's just fascinating to me."
The second season of 'Star Wars Resistance' will be premiering on the Disney Channel Sunday, October 6, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
