Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy doesn’t feel like Star Wars needs to cater to male fans, and we’re fine with that
The Force Awakens and Rogue One are Star Wars films centering on strong female leads. We LOVE that, but there are some (men, primarily) who don’t. While we can call them crybabies, Star Wars is a franchise with a large male fan base, and it’s possible they wouldn’t want to alienate fans. Luckily, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy doesn’t feel the need to cater to men who are upset about strong women. After all, the all-female Ghostbusters reboot faced the same sexist silliness, and the sexist reactions to the first Rogue One trailer were hilariously combatted on Twitter.
If you don’t know who Kathleen Kennedy is, you’re at least familiar with her résumé. She produced Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, and several Indiana Jones films; and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Kennedy became the head of Lucasfilm in 2012, when George Lucas sold the company to Disney. Essentially, we have her to thank for a lot of the new Star Wars goodness we’re getting.
Felicity Jones has already addressed the people’s issues with Jyn Erso being a female character. She said, “we wanted the audience to relate to Jyn as a person, whether you’re a boy or a girl, a man or a woman.”
Obviously, Jyn being a woman shouldn’t stop male audience embers from relating to her. However, a lot of people have ideals about what Star Wars *should* be. In a New York Times article about the Jones, Kennedy’s words about placating male fans that made us cheer.
“I would never just seize on saying, ‘Well, this is a franchise that’s appealed primarily to men for many, many years, and therefore I owe men something.’”
Obviously, Star Wars is an iconic franchise that boasts plenty of female fans as well as male ones. Some might argue that there are more male fans, though, or that alienating any fans can be a bad thing.
Kennedy, however, makes her point of view clear: “I have a responsibility to the company that I work with. I don’t feel that I have a responsibility to cater in some way.”
Of course, we love Rey and Jyn Erso, and back-to-back Star Wars films that center on strong women. So, we completely agree with Kathleen Kennedy. Now, we just have to wait two long weeks until Rogue One hits theaters!
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