Almost everyone can agree on the fact that female directors are sorely underrepresented in Hollywood and don’t get as many opportunities as males. While some studios are starting to take conscious steps to fix that, it’s still a definite problem. One franchise that fans have been calling for to involve more females is Star Wars, and in front of the camera, at least, Disney has definitely been making some strides towards having that happen.
The last two films to come from the sci-fi saga have featured a female main character, while there’s also been a lot talk of getting a female director on board for an upcoming spinoff. According to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, the studio has been searching far and wide, but they haven’t found anyone with enough experience just yet. We remain hopeful that their search will be successful though as in our eyes, there are definitely more than enough strong candidates out there. One of which is Rachel Talalay, who may not be a household name just yet, but is starting to gain some serious recognition thanks to her recent TV work.
Known for directing a handful of episodes of Doctor Who and the season 4 premiere of Sherlock, not to mention the movie Tank Girl, Talalay is slowly starting to build up an impressive resume and when asked in a recent interview if she’d be interested in tackling a Star Wars movie, she said she’d be all for it.
“Absolutely. Are you kidding me? Absolutely. Do I not have enough effects experience and enough nerd pedigree? I think not just Tank Girl but I think Doctor Who in terms of science fiction scope, effects scope, iconic projects, love of science fiction, all of the above. It would be incredible to be involved in one of those projects.
When you hear Carrie Fisher talk about what it was like to be almost one of the only women around to start with, and now seeing where the series has gone, it’s just so empowering and thrilling and I feel this is part of my mission in life is to strengthen – and Tank Girl being the essence of it – female roles in front of and behind the camera.”
It’s pretty clear at this stage that when it comes to having a female director helm a Star Wars film, it’s more a question of when and not if. It’s going to happen pretty soon, we imagine, as demand for it is high. Like we mentioned before, both Rogue One and The Force Awakens had female main characters, and we also know that Lucasfilm has a 50/50 gender split on their executive team. As such, a female director for one of their upcoming movies really does seem like the next logical step.
While she’s far from the only candidate to helm a Star Wars film, Talalay would certainly be a good choice. She’s received much praise for her work on Doctor Who and the rest of her resume is fairly solid as well. Whether or not she’ll actually get a chance to ever head to that galaxy far, far away remains to be seen, but if Lucasfilm is looking for someone with the skill and experience to tackle such a massive undertaking, they might want to take a meeting with Rachel Talalay.
