The 'Star Wars' galaxy needs women behind the camera more than ever

Something is still missing in the halls of Lucasfilm. 

While women have admirably moved to the forefront of the latest batch of Star Wars tales, from Rey (Daisy Ridley) to Jyn (Felicity Jones), there’s one seat the franchise still can't fathom a woman in: the director’s chair.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has repeatedly stated that she has “every intention” of making happen. “And she hasn’t done it," says Melissa Silverstein, founder of the Women and Hollywood website, which advocates for parity across the entertainment industry. "There are very few women who have the opportunity to make a change happen instantly, and she is one of them."

Lucasfilm hasn't responded to USA TODAY's request for comment.  

When will that time come? Some who work in Kennedy's orbit defend the timeline. “The brilliant Kathy Kennedy has been very open about her search for a female director, but she is never going to employ someone for one element, one sake,” says Gwendoline Christie, who plays Captain Phasma in the saga. “She is looking for the right people for the right projects for the right time.” 

Candidates need experience with larger budgets for the job, Kennedy has said. But with fewer women hired for even mid-tier movies, the list of women who fit the criteria shrinks to a tiny pool. And it bears noting that when studios seek out fresh voices to helm their franchises, male directors often bypass that rule entirely.

True, Rian Johnson, who helms the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi (in theaters Dec. 15), was able to prove his mettle with 2012's Looper, a sci-fi flick shot for $30 million, having moved up in the industry directing episodes of TV's Breaking Bad. 

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But Gareth Edwards made his $500,000 Monsters before being given Godzilla (which boasted a budget of $160 million), a film that set him up for last year’s Rogue One. Colin Trevorrow famously hopped from his low-budget Sundance hit Safety Not Guaranteed to the massive Jurassic World before being hired to direct Star Wars: Episode IX (though Lucasfilm cut him loose from the project in September over creative differences).

The issue, says Silverstein, is that “women are judged on their experience and men are judged on their potential.”

Meanwhile, there remain plenty of women with hits under their belts who deserve a shot. Take Ava DuVernay, who is completing A Wrinkle in Time for Disney, which boasts a budget in excess of $100 million. Or Angela Robinson, who just directed the critically praised superhero origin story, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Then there's Patty Jenkins, who raked in a whopping $821.8 million with the actual Wonder Woman, Warner Bros.' most successful DC Universe film to date. Or Michelle MacLaren, who has directed every TV show critics love, from Game of Thrones to The Walking Dead to Breaking Bad. 

"We just need many, many more people given opportunities so people are able to try things and figure things out as they go," Ridley says. "And in the Star Wars world, we now have a lovely, rich, diverse universe and to be headed by a woman would be the next step. It would be great."

Gurinder Chadha, who directed the global hit Bend It Like Beckham, said at a London Women and Hollywood event that it's still hard to finance her films, as a woman of color, despite her track record of success.

“I was very depressed. Why am I the only Asian woman director in Britain that has to talk about diversity?" she said. "So I emailed Kathleen Kennedy and said, ‘Why can’t I direct a Star Wars movie?’ ” The two took an extended meeting afterward, which Gurinder described as supportive.

Kelly Marie Tran, who plays new character Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, says she'd love to see what a woman would do with the reins. Star Wars has "so many female characters that are so strong and vulnerable at the same time and depicted in a way that’s not super-sexualized. It’s groundbreaking in that way. But it’ll be a whole new thing to have someone in charge of the creative side of it.”

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A galaxy should not be so far, far away for women behind the camera, Silverstein says.

With Rey and Jyn as protagonists, "you’ve got girls growing up believing that they could be Jedi," she says. "So the next step is to believe a woman could direct a Jedi.”

Contributing: Brian Truitt