#BoycottStarWarsVII: Critics claim new 'Star Wars' film is 'anti-white'

Anxious fans got the ultimate early Christmas gift when the much-anticipated full trailer for the latest "Star Wars" franchise installment, "The Force Awakens," was released on Monday night. But Internet trolls wasted no time taking to social media to stir things up.

The hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII was trending on Twitter after some critics claimed the film is "anti-white" due to the fact that it features a black actor, John Boyega, in the lead role as Finn, according to The Mary Sue.

>> RELATED: New 'Star Wars' trailer released for 'The Force Awakens'

One tweet from Twitter account End Cultural Marxism calls the sci-fi flick "anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide." A slew of other tweets claim that the film alienates its white male fan base.

The poster for the film features Boyega, as well as Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, yet some of the critics complain that the image is pushing black over white.

"Star Wars" fans – including director J.J. Abrams – quickly jumped to the film's defense.

"We cannot wait to share the trailer with you tonight," he tweeted. "I don't care if you're black, white, brown, Jawa, Wookiee, Jedi or Sith. I just hope you like it!"

>> Click here to see the post

Meanwhile, writers for several news outlets – including the San Jose Mercury News and The Washington Post – blasted critics in blogs and opinion pieces.

"Did Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels get race reassignment surgeries and I somehow missed it?" Tony Hicks wrote in the Mercury News.

The Post's Alexandra Petri added, "This is so patently inane that it would probably have died on its own, had it not been for everyone swooping in to express their indignation that such a hashtag would exist at all."

Read more here and here.

>> Click here to watch the trailer

– The Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.