A Female-Directed ‘Star Wars’ Movie Is ‘Absolutely’ Happening
On screen, women have always played pivotal roles in the Star Wars universe. In the sequel trilogy alone, Princess Leia, Rey, Rose Tico, and Admiral Holdo can be thanked for accomplishing much of the Resistance’s challenging work. But behind the camera, female representation isn’t as featured as many would like it to be. At the BAFTA Awards, BBC News asked Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy if she was planning on bringing a female-directed Star Wars feature film to the franchise. “Oh absolutely,” she responded. “Without question.” This is similar to a statement she made in 2015, where she said that a female-helmed Star Wars is “going to happen.”
But it hasn’t happened yet. Kennedy was keen to point out that there are currently female directors in the Star Wars franchise. “We’ve already got [women directors],” Kennedy said. “On The Mandalorian we’ve got two or three fantastic women working with Star Wars. And we just brought in Deborah Chow who is doing the Obi-Wan series. We’re cultivating a lot of great talent.” However, it was recently announced that the Obi-Wan series is being put on “indefinite” hold due to a revamping of the scripts.
So far, every Star Wars feature has had a male director. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (directed by J.J. Abrams) made progress with having a female second-unit director, Victoria Mahoney. But with no future movies officially announced yet, it might be a while before we get to see a Star Wars story told by a woman.
Gallery — Every Star Wars Movie Ranked: