Star Wars Will Have a Female Director, Lucasfilm President Promises

While characters like Princess Leia and Queen Amidala have become iconic figures in the Star Wars universe, it has been one very much dominated by men behind the scenes, with predominantly male directors, writers, and producers. With Kathleen Kennedy becoming President of Lucasfilm in 2012, this has started to change.

In an interview with Fortune this week, Kennedy spoke about the increased number of women she has working with her, and the possibilities of a female director taking on a future Star Wars film. "Fifty percent of our executive team are women," she said. "Six out of eight of the people in my story group are women. I think it's making a huge difference in the kind of stories we're trying to tell."

As for whether a Star Wars movie could be directed by a woman at some stage, Kennedy was emphatic that this would become a reality. "It is going to happen," she promised. "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."

Nevertheless, Kennedy did admit that finding women who were interested and excited about being involved with the Star Wars universe was not nearly as easy as finding men. "It is interesting because I have a huge number of men who call me constantly and tell me how much of a Star Wars fan they are, and how much they want to get involved in anything to do with Star Wars. I don't have a lot of women who call and have those conversations with me.

"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."

The next film in the franchise, Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens, opens on December 18, 2015. It is directed by JJ Abrams and stars John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.