Star Wars producer 'confident' about a future female director

Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridley, who appears in the upcoming Star Wars film

A Star Wars producer has said she has "no doubt" there will be a female director of a Star Wars film in the future.

In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Kathleen Kennedy, said: "It is going to happen.

"We will hire a woman who is going to direct a Star Wars movie."

But Kathleen, who is the current president of Lucasfilm, made it clear they wouldn't want to force - no pun intended - someone to take on the role.

Kathleen Kennedy is the producer of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

"I want to make sure that we put somebody in that position who is set out for success," she added.

"It's not just a token job to try to set out to find a woman who we could put into a position of directing Star Wars."

There have been seven different Star Wars directors to date, all men, and it was recently announced Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow will be at the helm of Star Wars: Episode IX.

Episode IX is set for release in 2019, but initial work with production artists will begin later this year.

Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World took $1.5bn at the global office

But Kathleen said the male dominance in the company has shifted recently.

She explained: "Fifty percent of the executive team [at Lucasfilm] are women.

"Six out of eight of the people in my story group are women... I think it's making a huge difference to the stories we're writing.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people who would be surprised that we're making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women."

Although saying the company is open to having more women involved, Kathleen said the people who get in touch with her about getting work are still predominantly male.

She explained: "It is interesting because I have a huge number of men who call me constantly and tell me how much of a Star Wars fans they are and how much they want to get involved in anything to do with Star Wars.

"I don't have a lot of women who call and have those conversations with me.

"So that's one of the challenges that we keep talking about.

"If we do want to bring a woman in to direct a Star Wars movie, we want to make sure that it's somebody who is passionate and really wants to do a Star Wars movie. We don't want to talk somebody into it."

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