Wookieepedia, the most popular Star Wars wiki, appears to have entered an unexpected moment of crisis. It’s impossible to overstate how important Wookieepedia, the fan-run Wiki, is to the Star Wars fandom. It’s one of the largest Fandom sites in existence, with 193,050 pages and counting, and the site has even been frequented by actors and writers as well as general fans.

There’s probably no better online resource when it comes to Star Wars, with Wookieepedia guiding viewers seamlessly through Legends and canon information. Even more impressively, over the last few years, the “Wook” (as it is often called) has become an important part of the online fan community in its own right. Unfortunately, over the last week, the Wook has found itself at the heart of a major controversy.

It All Begins With The Acolyte

The Star Wars fandom is often divided

Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte has proved to be one of Lucasfilm’s most controversial releases to date, with an online backlash and a pretty transparent review-bombing campaign. One of the strangest controversies was over the age of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, a character who makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in The Acolyte episode 4. This appearance contradicted a 1999 CD-ROM and a 2013 trading card, both of which established that Ki-Adi-Mundi shouldn’t have been born yet. Neither are actually canon, and Lucas himself contradicted the CD-ROM later in the prequel trilogy when he changed Ki-Adi-Mundi’s lightsaber color.

Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age became an unlikely flashpoint, especially when the canon page on Ki-Adi-Mundi was edited on Wookieepedia to reflect his appearance in The Acolyte. This resulted in death threat messages against the editor, and these were publicly shared by Jordan Wilson – then a key member of the Social Media Team and administrator of the Wook. Wilson had not been given permission to make these public, however, and has since acknowledged that doing so was a mistake. This seems to be the inciting incident for a major change at Wookieepedia.

Jordan Wilson Was Let Go From Wookieepedia

Jordan Wilson explains his departure

If you’re at all familiar with the internet, you’ll be aware that one sentence perfectly describes most online controversies; “Well, that escalated quickly.” It’s usually because the issue being discussed is a pretext for more long-running problems, and sadly that seems to be the case here. According to Jordan Wilson, on June 30 he was asked to make himself available for a meeting of the Social Media Team. When he went on his lunch break, Wilson found himself locked out of all social media accounts, and for several hours he wasn’t told what was going on.

Wilson was given an ultimatum. He had 12 hours to step down, or a public vote would be held over his role with evidence of alleged misconduct, “evidence which was not even shown to me until more than 12 hours after this, completely stripping me of any fair chance of explaining my side or defending myself against the allegations in that moment.” The time limit was eventually extended, and upon review, Wilson felt it had been deliberately stacked against him.

Wilson chose to step down on July 2, and planned to step away from the limelight to process what was going on; he’d been heavily involved with Wookieepedia for a long time, so – as he later explained – the sudden loss of both this role and community had shaken him and affected his mental health. To his surprise, an announcement of his departure was posted in the Wookieepedia Discord server, and a few days later he was subjected to a public vote on being removed as admin altogether. As Wilson put it on Twitter:

“The evidence was again set up in a way that made me look extremely malicious… I stepped down as an admin as well, to avoid more pain. I requested the vote be closed, as I had stepped down, and quit the site. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that the vote would remain up for the full two-week period, so ‘the community could have their say’. In essence, I would be subjected to being dragged through the mud for two weeks, just so people could attack me despite there being nothing left to vote for after I’d already resigned.”

Matters Become Visible To The Public

A shift away from the fandom

Jordan Wilson had put a great deal of time into developing relationships between Wookieepedia and the general Star Wars fandom, and the power of these relationships had been amply demonstrated when the fandom leaped to the Wook’s defense over the death threats. Surprisingly, though, after his departure, the Wook moved in a completely different direction. Wookieepedia’s Twitter account unfollowed over 4,000 Star Wars-related accounts over the last fortnight, including charities such as the Peter Mayhew Foundation.

With the controversy building, Wilson finally chose to go public on July 11. His statement was amplified by the Peter Mayhew Foundation, who stressed that they had spoken to representatives at Fandom and that an investigation was being held (Wookieepedia deny this, claiming it to be a “misinterpretation“). In the meantime, the Foundation immediately extended an invitation to Wilson to join their charity fundraising team due to his proven networking abilities. In a statement to Screen Rant, the Peter Mayhew Foundation said:

“Jordan Wilson through his work at Wookieepedia was an uplifting and positive force within the Star Wars community. When they asked him to step down we immediately offered to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf and when they forced him out anyway we asked him to join our grant writing team. The skills he demonstrated are rare and very valuable, and we’re thrilled that something positive came out of all this because Jordan will help us help a lot of kids and their families. He’s a great guy and we’re excited to work with him.”

Wookieepedia’s Official Statement Doesn’t Really Deal With The Issue

The Wook airs a view

Wookieepedia finally issued an official statement of their own on July 11, directly addressing the issue. Drafted in a somewhat opaque manner, it subtly hints at mistakes made during this process while avoiding admitting them explicitly. There’s an admission that Wilson was given too short a timeframe to react to the allegations against him, and “the standardization of procedure for such situations is currently being worked on.” In general, though, the piece simply alleges that Wilson lied to fellow members of the team, and that they could not trust him and thus made the decision to have him step down.

“As part of this, the website’s official social media accounts did not make any negative statements about him; as mentioned above, the only short announcement about his departure from the [Social Media Team] was issued on our Discord server. However, after the offsite escalation and misrepresentation of the situation by outside parties, we opted to issue this clarifying statement. We do not condone bullying in any way, shape, or form and have no intent to further the ongoing drama, and will be offering no further comment on it. ”

Meanwhile, the article further argues that the Wookieepedia Twitter account was following a number of accounts that were inappropriate – “such as accounts related to real-world politicians, unrelated businesses and actors, and accounts publishing mature content.” Rather than assess on a case-by-case basis, the Wook’s decision-makers chose to unfollow non-Lucasfilm creator accounts en masse (and accidentally unfollowed some Lucasfilm creators to boot). There seems to have been an ignorance of the fact this would upset many in the fandom, at any already-controversial time.

Ultimately, this really does feel like it’s as much about a change in direction at Wookieepedia as anything else. Wilson’s own philosophy is simple:

“There are so many amazing and passionate people here, and Wookieepedia is built by fans. We’re all passionate about this galaxy, and we should not only be supporting the fans, we should have been a place they could feel welcome and embraced.”

It seems decision-makers at Wookieepedia want a bit more distance between the Wook and the fandom. The Wook has seldom had a better reputation in the Star Wars fandom than over the last few years, and it’s sad to see that damaged.