Star Wars has awesome leading ladies starring in its upcoming films, from newcomer Daisy Ridley to Felicity Jones. But soon, there might be female directors and writers taking the reigns in futureStar Wars movies.
Screen Crush notes that while men have written and directed the movies, several powerful women are working behind-the-scenes at Lucasfilms from the President of the studio Kathleen Kennedy to Carrie Beck, Director of Creative Content Strategy to Kiri Hart, Senior Vice President of Development. Women have also written for the television series Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.
Kennedy has been pushing for women to be part of the Star Wars franchise as writers and directors. Kennedy revealed in a New York Timespiece that not only are agents not pitching their female clients to her, but female directors themselves aren't asking for those opportunities.
Until I waved the flag at the Fortune women’s conference recently, I had not had one single phone call from a woman telling me that she really, really wants to direct a ‘Star Wars’ movie. They need to be the ones picking up the phone and saying, ‘Hey, let me tell you what ‘Star Wars’ means to me and how much I could do with it.
Kennedy also told the Guardian that "having a balance of men and women in the room changes the story." As of now, J.J. Abrams directed The Force Awakens, as well as co-wrote the script with Lawrence Kasdan. Gareth Edwards is attached to direct Rogue One with a script from Chris Weitz based on a story by Gary Whitta. Episode 8 and Episode 9 are going to be written and directed by men as well.
At least the conversation is happening.
