Star Wars boss keen on recruiting female director for series

Kathleen Kennedy became the president of Lucasfilm in 2012

The woman in charge of the Star Wars films has said she is keen to have a woman direct an instalment in the sci-fi series - "when the time is right".

"We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do Star Wars, they're set up for success," Kathleen Kennedy told Variety.

Every entry in the series, including the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, has been directed by a man.

Yet Kennedy said she was on the look-out for promising female film-makers.

"They're gigantic films, and you can't come into them with essentially no experience," she said of the Star Wars films.

The plan, the Lucasfilm president continued, was "to focus in on people we would love to work with... then pull them in when the time is right".

Rogue One is a spin-off based on events referred to in the first Star Wars film

Earlier this year, British director Amma Asante claimed women were rarely trusted with big-budget, blockbuster films.

"It comes down to who they feel safe about in terms of flying the plane," she said of those at the top of her industry.

Rogue One, the first in a series of "stand-alone" Star Wars features, will be released in the UK and Ireland on 15 December.

Felicity Jones stars in Gareth Edwards' film as the leader of a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star space station.