Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy Announces a Female-Majority Executive Team

From left, front row: Kathleen Kennedy, Jacqui Lopez and Athena Portillo. From left, back row: Rhonda Hjort, Janet Lewin, Lori Aultman, Rayne Roberts, Kayleen Walters, Vicki Dobbs Beck and Pippa Anderson photographed by Christopher Patey on Nov. 19 at Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, Calif.

Lucasfilm has taken a leap in the right direction. Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, has announced an Executive Team that is more than 50% female. With the latest Star Wars films featuring female leads, this announcement is not surprising, although Kennedy says Rey and Jyn were a “coincidence”. According to Kennedy, “when you have a balance of men and women, there are all sorts of things that enter into the discussion”. As previously reported, the ending of Moana was thanks to the female team members who noticed elements the men did not. With women in the story meetings, “[no one has] to go, ‘Hey, what would a woman think?'”, says creative executive Rayne Roberts.

While team members credit Kennedy with this change, she herself gives credit to George Lucas who established an inclusive culture when he founded Lucasfilm. These changes, according to her team, were amplified when Kennedy took over in 2012. Kayleen Walters, the VP of Franchise Marketing, noted that “there’s a sterotype that wehn you have too many women in a room, it’s going to be catty… It’s nothing like that at all here… The more we support each other, the better we all do.” Despite moving the right direction, one notable area is lacking: there has been no female Star Wars director. Kennedy said that their first priority was creating an inclusive environment where a female director would be “set up for success”.

What do you think about these changes? Let us know in the comments below or join the conversation on Facebook.