The saddest thing about what Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy said about hiring a female director for Star Wars is that it needs to be reported at all. The franchise’s lack of diversity has been a hot-button issue for quite a while, and we’ve begun to see that change with The Mandalorian, but on the big screen there doesn’t appear to be a change on the horizon. Yet. But Kennedy assures us a change is coming, and that a woman will direct a Star Wars movie…someday.
“Oh, we already got’em,” she told BBC from the BAFTAs red carpet. “We’re doing ‘The Mandalorian’ [and] we’ve got two or three fantastic women working with ‘Star Wars’…we’re cultivating a lot of great talent.”
The ladies she’s referring to her Bryce Dallas Howard and Deborah Chow, the latter also getting behind the camera for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
But when asked about the big screen, Kennedy enthusiastically replied “Oh, absolutely! Without question.”
You would think Kennedy would be eager to get a woman behind the camera given the way things have worked out with the male directors lately. Perhaps a female is what Star Wars needs to turn things around? Maybe in 2022 when the next movie, whatever that may be, is expected to drop?
