Disney removes same-sex kiss from ‘Star Wars’ movie in Singapore release

Disney has removed Star Wars’ first same-sex kiss from its new movie, “The Rise of Skywalker,” in all showings in Singapore over the country’s restrictive laws governing LGBTQ people.

The brief kiss at the end of the film between two minor female characters was cut to preserve the film’s PG-13 rating in Singapore, according to The Guardian.

“The applicant has omitted a brief scene which under the film classification guidelines would require a higher rating,” a spokesperson from Infocomm Media Development Authority told the news outlet.

The next-highest rating in the country, NC-16, would have barred children under 16 from attending screenings of the movie.

Same-sex marriage in Singapore is illegal and the country has restrictive laws against gay people. Sex between men is punishable by up to two years in prison, though the law is silent on sex between women, according to The Guardian.

It is not immediately clear whether the brief scene was removed from the film in other countries.

The Hill has reached out to Disney for comment.

The scene had already sparked a debate among viewers, with many applauding Disney for the momentous first in the storied franchise, while others criticized it as tokenism.

Director J.J. Abrams in an interview this month reposted to some of the criticism, saying he saw the kiss between the two women as a chance to depict an LGBTQ relationship “without it being heavy-handed or making too loud of a deal.”

“Part of the whole experience was to see a same-sex couple have a moment together that was explicitly saying in this galaxy, everyone is there and is welcome,” he told MovieZine.