Kathleen Kennedy says female directors will absolutely helm Star Wars movies

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Mere months before the launch of the Disney-era of STAR WARS back in 2015, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that a large portion of the creative team for the franchise was made up of women, and stated that it was only a matter of time before a female director took the helm of a STAR WARS movie. "It is going to happen," Kennedy said. "We are going to hire a woman who’s going to direct a Star Wars movie. I have no doubt. On the other hand, I want to make sure we put someone in that position who’s set up for success. It’s not just a token job to look out and try to find a woman that we could put into a position of directing Star Wars … If we do want to bring a woman in to direct a Star Wars movie, we want to make sure that it’s somebody who’s passionate and really, really wants to do a Star Wars movie. We don’t want to talk somebody into it."

Five years and five movies later, and there has yet to be a STAR WARS feature-film helmed by a woman, which has prompted a little bit of criticism. While speaking at the Bafta Awards, where Kathleen Kennedy was the recipient of the prestigious Bafta Fellowship award, Kennedy once again promised that female directors of STAR WARS were on the way, and that they already have several women directing on the TV side of the franchise.

We’ve already got them. We're doing 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.

When asked whether that meant that a female director would tackle a big-screen STAR WARS movie, Kennedy said, "Oh absolutely. Without question." As Kennedy mentioned, several episodes of The Mandalorian were directed by women, with two excellent installments helmed by Deborah Chow, who is now in charge of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. With the STAR WARS franchise set to continue for the foreseeable future, I've no doubt that one or more films will be helmed by women, but I'm just a little surprised that Kennedy hasn't made it happen already.