Diversity Is Changing On-Screen For Star Wars, What About Behind-The-Scenes?
Kathleen Kennedy has spent a fair share of the campaign for ‘The Last Jedi‘ touting how much Rian Johnson understands female characters. Even at Star Wars Celebration, Kennedy and Johnson made a point to introduce a new female lead. The way they presented Kelly Marie Tran to the audience felt a bit too “try hard”.
“I’m going to embarrass him. …He writes as beautifully as he directs, and he writes amazingly, fierce and independent women.”
Kathleen Kennedy about Rian Johnson
After constantly hearing a woman talk about how cool this guy is for handling a female character correctly, it sparked a serious thought. Instead of just bragging about finding men who can write females, how about a female telling the Star Wars stories as well?
Before you attack in the comments, I’m not saying we turn the Star Wars franchise into a feminist movement. But simply employing a female director is more progressive than bragging about a male director who gets women.
One of the usual arguments would be: well, what female directors could handle this task?
Even Kathleen Kennedy recently spoke about “the search for a female director”. Her statement was met with controversy but she made some points. Finding anyone, not just a female, who can tackle this franchise is daunting. But let’s not ignore some names within in the industry that could handle something of this magnitude.
Don’t worry, I made a shortlist of some of Hollywood’s best.
Honorable Mentions:
– Elizabeth Banks
– Sofia Coppola
Anna Forester
– Anna Forester directed 2016’s ‘Underworld: Blood Wars‘. While it was met with negative reviews, the action sequences were complimented. Forester was even applauded for handling the convoluted timeline of the Underworld movies. Constantly working with Roland Emmerich also gives Forester big budget experience. She’s an unconventional choice but given the right material, there’s no doubt she could shine. Maybe not working in main story but a spin-off is great proving ground. Look at Gareth Edwards!
Ava DuVernay
– It’s a shame Marvel never got to use Ava DuVernay for ‘Black Panther‘ because it would’ve put DuVernay at the top of any list. Move past just women, women of color are often underrepresented in Sci-Fi. DuVernay is breaking barriers as being the first black women to direct a movie with more than 100 million dollars AND it’s a fantasy film so what’s stopping her from taking on Star Wars? Nothing! She needs to bring her Oscar nominated talent to this franchise.
Kathryn Bigelow
– No other female has the resume and the accolades to tackle this massive franchise. Kathryn Bigelow is an Oscar winner for her direction of ‘The Hurt Locker‘, with multiple nominations for Best Picture. The Star Wars franchise has deep roots in the war genre so Bigelow can easily bring elements of ‘The Hurt Locker‘ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ to the action scenes. But both those films go beyond simple war movies; they have heart. If she’s gonna tackle the main franchise or a spin-off, the film will need that emotional punch.
Do you agree with the choices? How do you feel about a female director for ‘Star Wars‘?
Let me know in the comments below!
