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Star Wars Rogue One posters targeted by pro-Trump street artist

The heavily subverted Star Wars images have been posted at bus stops and other locations in Hollywood

Maya Oppenheim
Sunday 11 December 2016 16:22 GMT
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The artist has targeted and mocked everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lena Dunham in his artwork
The artist has targeted and mocked everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lena Dunham in his artwork (Getty)

When Steve Bannon appeared to compare himself to the Star Wars villain that is Darth Vader, he probably did not expect to find himself plastered on actual Star Wars posters in Hollywood. However, thanks to a street artist, the former executive chairman of Breitbart's own words have become reality.

Sabo, a Conservative artist who has dedicated his career to producing politically incorrect street art, has subverted posters of the new Star Wars film. The name of the film has been tweaked from Rogue One to Rogue Won. The cast has been replaced with none other than a valiant-looking Donald Trump in the foreground and Hillary Clinton looking ominous in the background. At the very bottom of the poster, the title of the film has been ammended to instead read, “Rogue Won: A Culture War Story.”

If this was not enough to get the message across, the President-elect is surrounded by his posse in the poster. Chief strategist, Steve Bannon and Breitbart News tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos are two of the people in the faux advert.

Bannon and Yianopolis are both associated with the so-called “alt-right movement”. While Bannon declared far-right website Breitbart “the platform for the alt-right”, Yiannopoulos has been dubbed a spokesperson for the movement. To be clear, the movement has been accused of racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny and of sharing an ideology with far-right parties such as the French National Front.

But they are not the only people to feature in the Star Wars image that has been posted at bus stops and other locations near the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes who was an early Trump supporter, also appear gathered around the billionaire property developer.

There is also a spoof version of the Fox comedy Why Him? starring Bryan Cranston, Zoey Deutch and James Franco. Instead, it features Cranston, Mr Trump and Clinton engaged in a group hug. The text says: “Of all the guys his country could have chosen ... “ and beneath it says ”See you in Canada”. This is a direct jibe at the celebrities, including Cranston, who pledged to leave the US if Mr Trump became President.

“It does my heart well to know Hollywood went all out producing all kinds of girl-power movies in anticipation of the first woman president only to have their parade totally rained on by a white-skinned, blue-eyed, all-America loving, pussy-grabbing blowhard of a man's man,” Sabo told The Hollywood Reporter.

“I've never seen Hollywood's panties in such a bunch, and it was well worth the price of a vote … I’d never seen the mainstream media sell their souls for a candidate the way they did for Hillary, and she still lost.”

Sabo is at loggerheads with most street artists who tend to be fairly liberally minded. He has targeted and mocked by everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lena Dunham in his artwork.

“My aim as an artist is to be as dirty, ground level, and mean as any Liberal artist out there, more so if I can. Use their tactics, their methods, appeal to their audience, the young, urban, street urchins with a message they never hear in a style they own,” Sabo says on his website.

He tends to put up his creations in the early hours and they tend to remain for a fair few hours before authorities rip them down.

Disney did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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