‘The Mandalorian’ star contemplates the pressure Carrie Fisher faced when playing Leia in the original trilogy

The world has morphed into a very different, globalized, and inclusive place since the debut of the original Star Wars trilogy back in 1977. In a cinematic landscape which was then filled with mostly white male protagonists, with women more often than not playing the roles of damsels in distress, we’ve made significant cultural headway in ensuring casts and characters in Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters are as diverse as they can be. 

In the original trilogy, the only key female character was Carrie Fisher’s princess Leia. Since then, we’ve seen a woman in the lead role of a Star Wars sequel trilogy, as well as the Rogue One spin-off, and we’ve also seen broad female representation in the various Disney Plus television series in LucasFilm’s universe.

Speaking at FAN EXPO in Cleveland, The Mandalorian’s Armorer, Emily Swallow commented on where the Star Wars universe currently stands when it comes to representing women, and the legacy of the late Carrie Fisher, and the pressures she must have faced back when the original trilogy was being made (via Yahoo!):

“I mean, what a lot of pressure that put on Carrie Fisher to have to be the one hero female for a while! I think it’s wonderful the range of women now that we have in Star Wars and the fact that it’s not that remarkable that they’re women. They’re just people. I really love that about The Armorer. I love that she’s in this position of leadership and she is respected and looked up to and it doesn’t seem to be anything exceptional that she’s a woman. She is this powerful spiritual leader of these people and it doesn’t seem like she’s an exception to the rule. And I love that. I love that we notice she’s a woman and then that stands out to us, but she’s just awesome.”

Swallow has certainly left her mark on the Star Wars universe with her authoritative role in the Mandalorian community, and hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of her as new episodes of The Mandalorian land on Disney Plus every Wednesday. 

The actor also hopes to reunite with Pedro Pascal on screen in a different franchise, a very sad adaptation of a post-apocalyptic video game which you may or may not have heard of which rhymes with The Pasta Bus.